Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst
by Writer Nightpen
Summary: An alternate look on how the events in Narcissu 2nd Side would play out if something different happened to Himeko. Crosses over with mostly Wangan Midnight and Initial D, but there will be plenty of other elements. Story is now completed.
1. No Rest for The Wicked

DISCLAIMER: All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfic is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

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_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Chapter 1: No Rest for the Wicked_

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Akio sighed for the umpteenth time today. School has just ended for the semester, and the summer vacation is at hand. Due to the private tutoring he received from Ms. Shimada, he managed to squeeze through with barely-average scores in his weakest subjects, Math and Physics. He chuckled softly on that thought; a racer who cannot predict the movement and trajectory of his own car? Well, to Akio, racing has always been something akin to waking up in the summer morning: It's instinctive. Ms. Shimada has always scolded him for that, and further into the tutoring, he finally started to grasp the essential physics behind his own racing. It was enlightening, to say the least.

That's not what the biggest worry he had in mind, though. He can't run, probably for two or three weeks ahead. Devil Z is undergoing repairs for its latest crash, and Ko-chan said that he will reinforce the chassis to better cope with the strain of its monster engine. It will surely not be cheap, either.

With nothing more to do in school, he got up and made his way home.

…

"Oh, Akio," A somewhat unfamiliar voice greeted him.

"Hello, dad," he grunted. "Such a rarity to see you here."

With a non-committal grunt, his father acknowledged the young man. Though they are officially divorced, both of Akio's parents still show up in his apartment sometimes. It has became a sort of neutral ground for the two parents, although the encounter had turned sour a few times too many for Akio's liking.

"I heard you bought a new car," the patriarch replied his son's succinct reply, diverting from the issue. "What's the make?"

"It's a second-hand Nissan S30Z," the son replied. "I got it from a junkyard near here. It's very good, though it's a coupe."

"Can I borrow it sometimes?" the father playfully asked as Akio took a bottled mineral water from the fridge. "I'm going to take your mom on a ride South one of these days…"

"I won't recommend it," Akio answered. "It has no air-con or tape… or any convenience, for that matter. The shockbreaker's also hard, and the boot's small. It was built to race."

"Oh, I don't know you're a hashiriya[1]," the father replied, obviously taken aback. "How much power does it have?"

"Er… you're not mad, Dad?" Now it's Akio's turn to be taken aback.

"Ah, you're a big guy already," the father parried his son's wariness gently. "You're inheriting my company someday, and before that boring day comes, you had to have as much fun as you sure to play it safe, though."

"It has around 650 hp at present," Akio professed.

"Quite a powerful car… must be a beast to drive," the father remarked. "So, where is it now?"

"At an associate… I crashed it a few days ago running at the Wangan," Akio confessed, after sitting on a dining room chair.

"Tadaimaa~" a women's voice called from the door.

"Mom?" Akio replied to the holler.

"Ooh, Father is here I see," the mother coolly regarded. "So, how's the precious stocks?"

"Very good. Fischer Energy's disbandment opened a lot of doors," the father replied. Akio sighed as the seemingly-innocuous banter can escalateinto the two throwing acid remarks to each other.

"Oh yeah, do you remember your Aunt Shinohara, Akio dear?" the mother said as she rummaged the freezer, settling her choice on a popsicle.

"You mean that Catholic sister of yours?" the father added.

"Yeah, sure," Akio interceded, not keen on witnessing another war of the words. "If I'm not mistaken, you said that one of their daughters just entered that school for nurses…"

"Can you visit them this summer vacation?" the handsome boy's mother said gingerly. "We haven't been visiting for quite a few years now…"

"I have summer vacation work to do, mom," Akio quickly shot that idea down. "I need quite a lot of money for my car, so I may be pulling a lot of overtimes. Besides, Mito is not exactly next door, you know."

"That's a good idea, actually," the father pitched in. "Tell you what, if you agree to stay with them this vacation, I'll foot your car bill and give you a raise in this month's allowance."

"We can't help if he doesn't want to, Dear," the mother objected.

"Surely you don't want our James Dean to turn into a desk zombie and die of karoushi[2] too soon, Mama. The stock's been good anyway… enough to foot bills several times over and then some," the father parried the mother's objection. "So, what's your call, Akio?"

"Oh, all right," Akio grunted for a bit. "You always know how to win a deal…"

"Deal then. Go book a shinkansen to Ibaraki for within the week," the father said, smiling thinly.

Akio sighed softly. He would also have to call Izakaya Club to ask for two or three weeks leave, and then Ko-chan to say that he'll probably be away by the time Devil Z finished its repairs. It's going to be a long month.

…

The balmy, not-exactly-warm weather greeted the handsome teenager upon setting his foot on Mito's soil. Akio reminisced of his childhood years, where their family would visit the Christian family in summer holidays. The Shinohara family would take them around town to see the sights and festivals on Kairaku-en, and then go to the nearby beach…

"Ano... Akio… Asakura-san?" a familiar voice called to him, breaking his reverie.

"Chihiro-san… was it?" Akio awkwardly returned the greeting. "Err… Long time no see, I guess."

"Ehehe, long time no see to you too, Akio-kun," Chihiro said happily. "The last time you were here was… six years ago I guess?"

"Around that time, yes," Akio returned the pleasantries. "Time sure flies!"

"Ahahaha, you're right Akio-kun," Chihiro replied in a kind voice. "Uhh, shall we go to the house now? I'm sure Mother will be delighted to see you."

"Yeah, let's," Akio replied, hauling his rather small traveling bag.

From the station, they took a commuter bus to a bus stop near the complex where the Shinohara family lives. As they walked from the bus stop to the Shinohara's house, Akio can't help but marvel. The neighborhood has been anything but the same to his memories. There were more trees growing now, as well as greener lawns. An unfamiliar church was standing on a plot of land the young man recalled was empty.

"What's the matter, Akio-kun?" Chihiro asked.

"Oh, it's nothing really, Chihiro-san…" Akio answered lightly. "It's just that the neighborhood had changed quite a bit…"

"Did you mean the church?" Chihiro replied with another question. "It has been around for quite some time…"

"My memory of this complex is a bit rusty it seems," Akio replied sheepishly.

They walked on not fifty yards from the church, into the family house. Being familiar with cars lately, one of the first things to struck Akio's mind is the red roof-less coupe parked in the sun, just outside the double garage.

"Whose car is that, Chihiro-chan?" the young man asked with a tone of mild curiosity.

"Oh? That's Onee-chan's car," Chihiro replied rather off-handedly as she stepped on the doormat and opened the door. "Tadaima okaa-san~!"

"Okaerinasai, Chihiro-chan… oh my, look at who we have here!" the middle-aged woman Akio recognized as his aunt greeted them. "I just turned my face from you for a short time, and you've grown this tall and handsome, Akio-kun!"

"Ah… hello, Aunt Ayako," the young man returned the greetings. "I hope I'm not too much a bother…"

"Oh, nonsense!" the aunt beamed. "Let's get you settled first, shall we?"

"I'll park onee-chan's car, then," Chihiro said.

Half an hour later, Akio had settled his bags in the guestroom at the second floor, and is now enjoying afternoon tea with his aunt and Chihiro.

"That's a nice car she had," Akio remarked as he took a cookie from the plate in the middle of the table. "An overseas model, I guess? I haven't seen many like it even in Tokyo..."

"Himeko-neesan bought… it a few years ago," Chihiro filled Akio in the details, if a little uneasily. "It's a miracle that she even managed to make the car run at all..."

"That silly girl..." Ayako remarked, sighing.

"Aah, so that's Onee-chan's name... man I forgot a lot of things. Where's Himeko-nee then?" Akio asked, clueless of what he said. "I bet she's working hard right now… maintaining a retro car like that isn't exactly the cheapest hobby around…"

A waft of uneasy silence greeted Akio for the first time he's been in this town. It's as if the mother and child were caught completely off-guard.

"Haven't you heard, Akio…?" the aunt reacts to break the stifling silence. "Himeko… has been hospitalized for two and a half years now…"

Now it's Akio's turn to freeze in shock. The memories of the kindly, active sister figure which just came back to Akio moments ago is now cruelly quashed.

"I-… I didn't mean to pry, sorry," the young man apologized for the faux pas.

"Excuse me ma'am~" a manly voice called from the front door, a salvation for the three people. "I'm Fukabori from Togaya Liquor…"

…

Akio woke from his shallow sleep in the darkened room. Last night was a fairly hectic one, especially from the emotional viewpoint. His aunt and uncle filled him in with information regarding Himeko's hospitalization. From what he could gather, Himeko's sudden illness takes everyone by surprise. The cancer on Himeko's breast had been left unchecked for so long, and when the pain started, it was already too late. Doctors were even convinced that the sister figure won't last a year and a half. Yet, she soldiers on even to this day, a fact that Akio can't help but to admire.

Lazily, Akio glanced to his wristwatch, of which he kept under his pillow by habit. It was a bit before six, the time he normally got back from his Wangan runs. He tried to grab some more sleep, but it seems that The King of All Dreaming won't let Akio re-enter his realm, so he got up and unpacked his bathroom kit.

"Ohayou…" Akio greeted his aunt, who is cooking some fried rice for breakfast.

"Ohayou, Akio-kun!" Ayako replied cheerfully. If last night was an emotional night, Akio couldn't discern it from her face now. "Quite a morning person, I see? Give me a moment and I'll fix the tea, dear."

"Yeah… I slept rather early last night," the young street-racer professed as he sat on a chair. "Say, Ayako-basan[3]…"

"What is it, dear?" the Shinohara matriarch replied as she chucked two teabags into a pot and filled it with hot water.

"May I… have a look at Himeko-san's car?" Akio gingerly asked, afraid of stirring an emotional hornet's nest. "I used to help a friend of mine restoring vintage cars… I grew fond of it, eheheheh."

"Why of course, dear. Now where did Chihiro usually put the keys…" the middle-aged woman obliged. "Ah, here it is."

"Thanks, oba-san," the teenager said as he received the keys and went for the front door.

"Sure you don't want to eat first, Akio-kun?" Ayako called, but the call went unanswered as the teenager disappeared before the door.

…

Cars had become his passion, and finding one to tinker in his vacation is a small victory for Akio. He turned the starter, only to be greeted with a tired grunt of the engine. After he successfully started the engine, he proceeded to engage the reverse gear, finding little resistance as the gearbox complied.

Slowly Akio backed the car out of the garage, then re-engaged the parking brake and put the gear back to neutral. Satisfied with the acceptable condition of the machine, he revved the engine a few times, cranking it up to a little bit before three thousand RPMs. The noise of the engine made Akio frown a bit, since it doesn't really match the smooth, regular hum of a well-kept engine he knew by heart. After doing work on Devil Z for a few months and many months in Ko-chan's tuning garage prior to that, Akio had caught on how to recognize a good engine from the bad.

"Good morning, Akio-kun," a middle-aged man remarked as he emerged from the front door. "Trying out the car, I see?"

"Morning too, Toushirou-jisan," Akio replied respectfully as he finally found a small lever to unlock the bonnet. "Just my standard morning ritual… sort of."

"Do you have a car, Akio-kun?" the uncle asked lightly, watching from the side as Akio opened the bonnet with a practiced ease.

"Yeah. I found a cheap S30Z in a junkyard half a year ago, been restoring and tuning it since," Akio off-handedly remarked as he inspected the engine, noting the mishmash of old and new parts indicating a rather amateurish attempt of restoring the first model Miata. "It's in the workshop now though. Blew a gasket or something while cruising one night…"

"You know, Himeko worked so hard to restore this car from the state she bought it in," the middle-aged man reminisced. "It was barely functioning when it first limped into this driveway."

"Himeko-san did a good job," the teenager said as he inspected the oil dipstick, "If a little misguided. She had most things right, but some of these restoration should probably be done a little more thoroughly…"

"She bought it for a little under a hundred thousand yen," the uncle remarked. "Pretty bad bargain, I'd say, but it's her money anyway. Turned the other side of the garage into a mini-workshop where she would work on the machine whenever she had free time…"

"Aah, I see this now…" Akio muttered softly as he jogged to the garage, grabbing a toolbox he spotted earlier. Without much effort, he tuned out his uncle and began tinkering around the machine. Minutes tick by as the uncle fell into silence, watching his nephew work on kinks and miscellany in the engine of the Roadster.

"You seem to be good at repairing cars, Akio-kun," Toushiro remarked, breaking Akio's daydreamy tinkering.

"Eh? Oh, this… eheheh, I worked at a friend's garage shop for close to two years," Akio sheepishly replied. "It's becoming a habit…"

"Why don't you repair it for us? It'll be cheaper than taking it to a garage for a total overhaul…" the uncle suggested.

"I don't know ojisan…" Akio said tentatively. "Even though I knew some things about repairing and tuning cars, we should probably take this car for rust treatment and such… it's a rather old model, after all."

"Just do what you're good at," the uncle reassured, patting the young man's shoulder.

"Oh, there you two are," Ayako said as she emerged from the front door. "Breakfast is ready, and Chihiro will be joining us in a bit."

"Uh… I'll just wrap this up, then…" Akio sheepishly replied as he put the tools back into the box.

Breakfast was rather uneventful, and the talk revolves around the Miata's rather unkempt condition. Akio noted that nobody seem to care much of the car; Toushirou takes it out for short drives occasionally, but seemed to care little for its maintenance. Chihiro only knew how to wash it, and a family friend takes it out occasionally for check-ups and routine maintenance. Akio smiled a little when her aunt told him a story when the car once leapt a good two meters as Chihiro tried to start it, leaving the poor girl scared for a few days.

"Oh dear, how fast time goes when you're merry," Ayako remarked as she glanced to the hanging clock. "You better hurry if you want to visit your sister before your morning class, Chihiro."

"Ah, yes!" Chihiro replied, her lull of breakfast time now broken.

"Can I tag along, Chihiro-san?" Akio interrupted. "I want to say hi to Himeko-san too…"

"Of course, Akio-kun," Chihiro replied, smiling to Akio. "Onee-chan will be delighted to see you again after so long…"

"Let me drop you two at the hospital, then," Toushirou offered. "I can afford to be a bit late for work today."

"Well then, what are you waiting for, corporals?" Ayako commanded in a quipping tone. "Time's a-ticking! Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

The ride in the family station wagon lasted less than five minutes. They pulled over in the hospital's outpatient drop-off area, with Toushirou quickly bidding farewell. Akio found it rather odd, but thought that perhaps he had visited his daughter enough already to be excused of such display of callous behaviour.

"Right this way, Akio-kun," Chihiro guided the teenager. "Onee-chan's room is at the seventh, top floor."

"Eeh, that's new," the teenage boy replied. "This hospital has it pretty tall…"

"Yes," the cousin replied, pressing the elevator button for the seventh floor. "The seventh is a hospice ward for the terminally ill."

Akio sank into an uneasy silence as the elevator door slid shut. For the price of concentrating with the Miata, he chose to tune out the painful fact that Himeko Shinohara, the little princess who owned the car, is dying. A dull 'ting!' was what snapped him out of his short reverie.

"Hello, Chihiro-chan," a young nurse greeted the duo as they emerged from the elevator door. "Taking the morning session today?"

"Oh, not today, Nami-san," Chihiro replied with a smile. "I'm just dropping by before morning classes… oh yes, this is my cousin from Tokyo. He will be staying with us for this summer."

"Nice to meet you, miss," Akio said, slightly bowing to the mature-looking nurse.

"Make yourself at home, dear," the nurse said warmly. "You are welcome to visit anytime you want, but between seven in the morning to nine in the evening is preferable. It's okay if you want to spend the night here, too."

"I'll… keep it in mind," the young man said courteously. From what little cues he can pick up, it's obvious that Nami-san has fallen to him, if only a bit. It's such a curse sometimes, Akio thought.

From the elevator, it was a short walk to room number 717, through the nurse station. Chihiro exchanged greetings with the nurses, a fact that Akio noted. At the door after a few more minutes of talking, Chihiro knocked three times, and then opened the door. Himeko was there, sitting on a chair beside the bed.

"Good morning, Onee-chan," Chihiro greeted. For the first time after around six years, Akio again saw Himeko, a sister figure he has mostly forgot. "How are you today? Have you eaten your breakfast and morning medications?"

"Chihirooo! Dearie me, you've grown so mature… even bringing your boyfriend to visit your beloved big sister? Oh, I'm so moved…" Himeko quickly launched into a teasing non-sequitur, complete with wiping her nonexistent tears with a tip of her cotton handkerchief.

"O-onee-chan!" Chihiro quickly came reeling back, her face slightly pink from the unexpected tease. "He is not my boyfriend! He's Akio Asakura, our cousin from Tokyo…"

"Eeh?" now is the turn for the older girl to be taken genuinely aback. "Eeeeh? I-is this… is this really that cute little Akio-chan?"

"Ehehe, yes, Himeko-neesan," Akio replied, smiling after swiftly overcoming the cringe on hearing a –chan attached to his name[4]. "Long time no see…"

"My god, you've grown so handsome!" Himeko cooed, pinching lightly at Akio's cheeks. "Say Chihiro, can I have him? Please? I promise I won't break him and you can get him back once I die…"

"O-onee-chan! Please don't talk like that!" Chihiro reprimanded, if a little weakly.

"Kidding, kidding," the older girl replied playfully. "So, I take it that you'll be staying for the summer vacation, eh Akio-chan?"

"Yeah," Akio replied simply. "Life's been a bit hectic for me in Tokyo, so I'm taking a breather…"

"I'd say! Even life here can be hectic when you're a teenager," Himeko responded.

"Well then, I'll excuse myself, Onee-san, Akio-kun," Chihiro said, seeing that there's not much to be worried with her energetic older sister. "I'll be doing some volunteer work here later in the afternoon, so we can go home together after that, Akio-kun. If you want to go home earlier than that, Onee-chan can give you some directions."

"I'll keep that in mind, Chihiro-san," Akio remarked.

"So! How's college life for you?" Himeko quickly threw a question to Akio. "Must be a lot of cute girls out there in Tokyo, eh?"

"Er… I was set back a year, Himeko-nee… so I haven't graduated high school," Akio sheepishly answered. "I… eh, kinda fooled around a bit too much…"

"Eeeh? Your joking~" Himeko said in surprise. "How many was your harem? Three? Four?"

"It's not like thaat," Akio objected lightly. "I just… get caught in too many jobs. Restoring cars is quite expensive, you know."

"You love cars too?" A sparkle suddenly lit up somewhere in Himeko's eyes. "Tell me, tell me! What model do you have?"

"Uh… a Nissan. S30Z, to be exact…" Akio replied.

"A fellow vintage lover~" Himeko suddenly threw her hands up. "This calls for a great celebration! Let's go downstairs and eat some ice cream, shall we?"

"O-ok," Akio mumbled as the older girl took his hands and proceeded to drag him downstairs. He was not even sure if this hospital sells ice cream.

…

"So! Let's order some ice cream, then! Pick what you like, Akio-chan?" Himeko said enthusiastically as they settled sown on a table in the hospital cafetaria. With a practiced air, Himeko handed Akio a menu. "Chocolate? Mint? Or maybe something more exotic… like Blueberry, perhaps?"

Akio was a bit dumbfounded by the older girl's energy. Was this somebody who was supposed to be dead a year ago? He thought as he scanned the menu. "Uhh… I guess I'll have…"

"Wait, wait, waaaait! Let The Great Tenkohime-ko exactly guess the flavor of your choosing!" Himeko interrupted. "Hmm… judging from the alignment of the sun and the moon today… and the time we stepped into the elevator…"

Akio was awestruck for a second, his mind reeling. Can she really? He thought gingerly as he scanned the menu. Finding a header titled "Ice Cream" at the corner, he was sorely disappointed.

"You must be a vanilla type of guy!" Himeko finished. "How was it? I nailed the bullseye, no?"

"But… there's only one flavor here, Himeko-nee… vanilla," Akio replied sheepishly.

"Ahahaha~ you're good, Akio-chan!" Himeko guffawed, obviously happy with him catching on with the Manzai routine[5]. "But the delivery of that last line is a little lacking on the deadpan tone. We must practice this skit, I want to impress Mom in Christmas."

"W-well…" Akio mumbled, dumbfounded. "I'll go get the ice creams, then…"

"Get four cups," Himeko added. "You won't be satisfied with just one, trust me."

"O… okay," Akio replied, unsure of what to do.

Not five minutes later, Akio got back with four cups of ice cream, with two plastic spoons to eat them.

"Saa, itadakimasu~" Himeko started. "Uaaah, so good~ this is the thing for summers!

"Itadakimasu…" Akio chimed along.

The first few spoonfuls were rather quiet; Himeko was devouring the sherbet ice cream with absolute relish while Akio looks on and eating at a more relaxed pace. Akio noted that the vanilla low-fat ice cream was indeed pretty good, even more remarkable in the fact that this is hospital fare, which people would not expect to be good most of the time.

"So let me catch up on you, Akio-chan," Himeko finally said as she paused eating, her cup halfway empty. "Got new hobbies? Great abilities? Like maybe, singing Natsu no Machinegun's infamous solo in one breath?"

"Umm… not to speak of… and no, that solo part is just impossible," Akio deadpanned. "As for abilities… well, I suppose high-speed driving would count."

"Really? Do you take motorsport license exams?" Himeko's eyes lit up as she replied. "I have a Rank A JFA License, you know~"

"Not like that, Himeko-nee…" Akio cautiously intoned as his tone dropping into a hush-hush. "I'm a hashiriya."

"Really…" Himeko pondered for a second, finishing her first cup of ice cream. "Aren't those kind of racing dangerous?"

"Well, yeah… I crashed a few times myself," Akio sheepishly replied. "But the rush is unparalleled. I don't think I can stop soon."

"Really… kids these days," Himeko muttered while fiddling with the last of the ice cream in her first cup. "Well, I suppose I'll be like you too, had I don't know the RoadSpec Racing exist."

"RoadSpec?" Akio uncomfortably asked.

"Yeah. They race Roadsters[6] in circuits around the country, sometimes in road courses. I had always wanted to race in Suzuka~" the older girl explained. "Although to be honest, I wanted to be in it because it's rather cheap to enter and does not require flashy tuning. Plus it pays a bit, too."

"That so…" Akio contemplated. "Oh yes, about your Roadster then…"

"Oh, do ask about it! It's my pride and joy," Himeko replied quickly. "I've even kept the original 1,6 liter engine intact!"

"Er, yes… Toushirou-jisan wants me to fix it," Akio cautiously mentioned as Himeko opened her second cup. "I figure I'd ask you first."

"Ah… just like that Otou-san…" the older girl pondered in a low, almost growling tone as she ate her sherbet. "Can you do it, I wonder? I'm probably as good as it gets when you ask a random passerby to fix a car, and frankly you look much the same. Well, outside your hashiriya claim it is."

"I worked at a friend's auto garage for around two… almost three years now, tuning and whatnots," Akio said with a hint of pride. "I can even improve your Roadster's performance by a bit… probably."

"Okay, you're hired for my racing team. Your salary won't be good, though," Himeko replied with a wide grin. "God, I always want to do that."

"Er… I take it as a yes, then," Akio surmised. "I'll probably start with cleaning up with the machine, replacing consumables and old parts, and after that proceed with tuning and stuff. There would be a lot to change and improve, I guess. I'll need some power tools for more serious works…"

"That's it, Sabu! Let's rebuild the Mach 5 to win this race!" Himeko cheered. "My toolbox has some power tools, but you could ask to borrow bigger tools at the church. They have a community center that does odd jobs once in a while, if I'm not mistaken."

"The church?" Akio asked gingerly. "Is that okay to do that, I wonder?"

"If you have doubts, bring Otou-san or Chihiro with you," Himeko suggested. "They're good members of the parish, a surefire way to get your request accepted."

"That's a bit…" Akio sheepishly replied.

"Ah, don't worry about that," Himeko waved Akio's concern aside. "Besides, Otou-san wanted the Roadster fixed. It's the least he can do… well, besides footing the bill, I guess."

"I hope I won't be forced to do that, though…" Akio said.

…

Akio sighed as a can of barley tea clattered into the recess in the back of the flap covering in the front side of the vending machine. His conversation with Himeko after the café talk was rather short, and he then elected to go home alone. He had asked Himeko for directions, and he was pleasantly surprised to know that the family house is located within easy walking distance from the hospital.

As he gulped the tea, Akio can't help but to wonder. It's slight, but Akio can just detect a change of tones when she mentioned her family. He can't wrap his finger around that notion. Is there something around them? Does she hate them, or vice versa? All those questions were flying left and right, prompting Akio to pay them less heed in fear of the questions overwhelming him. For now, I guess it'll be better for me to concentrate on the Roadster…

"Tadaima~" Akio called as he opened the front door of the house.

"Oh, you're home, Akio-kun," came Ayako's reply. "Have you eaten lunch yet?"

"Come to think of it, I haven't," Akio replied, glancing to a wall clock that says that it's five minutes past one in the afternoon.

"Oh, poor you," the middle-aged woman said. "I'll heat some croquettes for you, then. Just wait for a bit. How's Himeko, by the way?"

"She's… well enough, as far as the term go," Akio mustered a reply. "She also said that I can repair and tune her car. I'll start working on it tomorrow, I guess."

"That's wonderful!" the aunt remarked as the microwave sounded a crisp ping, indicating the timer had reached its intended length of time it had been set to. "She used to let no one else handle the car… it's as if that Roadster is her baby or something. Yuka-chan was kind enough to handle the maintenances, even footing the bill."

"Thanks, Ayako-san," Akio said as he accepted the dish and bowl of rice. "I figure I'd ask some of my friends of a good auto supplier around here, probably look at the phonebook for addresses, and ask if they do delivery…"

"Do your best, Akio-kun," The aunt cheered discretely.

* * *

**Glossary, Notes, and Miscellany**:

[1]: A Japanese slang for street racers. The word 'hashiriya' means 'runner', from the root word 'hashiru' ('to run').

[2]: A Japanese general term for death by overworking. This is especially prevalent in Japan since their work load is one of the heaviest in the world.

[3]: A shorthand of oba-san, Japanese for 'auntie'. Please note that this verb is very easy to slur into obaa-san, which mean 'grandma'. A similar case would be ojisan (uncle) and ojiisan (grandpa).

[4]: Attaching a –chan to someone's name is generally only used by children or between people who knew each other for a long time (mother to daughter, between siblings/cousins, between very intimate lovers). As you can see though, Himeko used to call Akio with this in the past.

[5]: Manzai is a Japanese form of two-man stand-up comedy routine, with one playing the dumb guy (boke) and another playing the straight man (tsukkomi).

[6]: The Mazda MX-5 is initially marketed in Japan under the name of Eunos Roadster, and the 'Roadster' part sticks even after Mazda decides to market later models under its own brand (Eunos is an alternate brand for Mazda, much like what a Lexus to Toyota is).

* * *

**A/N**: Thanks for reading this story (and please don't flog me for neglecting Team 9). Please note, that while I'm trying to stick to the basic tenets of both series, you will see a lot of differences due to me taking liberties with them. I hope this do not detract from your enjoyment. Cheers~!


	2. Black Magic Woman

DISCLAIMER: All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts are _in italic_.

* * *

_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Chapter 2: Black Magic Woman_

* * *

Lunch slips by rather quietly, and Akio quickly excused himself to phone his friends after he finished lunch. The first number he dialed, naturally, is Ko-chan's number.

"Hello! Kokubunji Auto Services, what can I do for you?" a familiar voice greeted Akio from the other side of the line.

"Ma? Hey, how are you? Akio here, I want to speak with Ko-chan," Akio said, smiling a bit. It seems Ma went along and joined the family business, he thought.

"Heeey, Akio! I heard you're in Ibaraki, man? Brother's here alright," Ma replied enthusiastically. "Oh, he's just started draining oil… I guess he'll take your call in a little while. So what's up?"

"Not much… seems there's no rest for the wicked for me here. I'm repairing a cousin's Eunos Roadster, and I want to know if your brother has acquaintances here…" Akio mentioned, lightly laughing between sentences.

"What model? You'll have to ask Brother for that, I don't know much of the network yet," Ma responded.

"Early nineties NA Roadster… standard model, I guess. No racing modifications to speak of, but it's already very light. No tape, no aircon, no nothing… the only way to lighten it is to pull off the passenger seat and tear off the upholstery," Akio said, glancing towards the front door. "It still sport the 1,6 engine, even. It doesn't get more retro than that, I guess."

"Fuu! Your cousin has good eye!" Ma marveled. "Spec Miata[7] racing is all the rage in America, Top Gear said! People have been making great profits exporting old NA models overseas lately…"

"How about RoadSpec? Know anything about that?" Akio asked.

"Oh, that's a Japanese adaptation of Spec Miata. Like the Spec Miata, it's cheap to get into, got nation-wide racing, and sported a decent prize. I heard many endorsed it, including Mazda itself and Keiichiro Tsuchiya," Ma replied with relish. "Come to think about it, their next race will be in Tsukuba... ah, here you are, Bro."

"Hey, Akio! Heard you're tuning even in your vacation, eh?" Ko-chan chimed in his baritone voice. "Devil's repairs will probably be done in one or two more weeks. So, what do you need?"

"Ah, Ko-chan," Akio replied. "Do you have any friends in Ibaraki? I'm in Mito, to be exact. I got a car that needs fixing…"

"Hmh, Mito, eh… that's a tough one. I don't know many guys in Ibaraki, though I do know some people in Shimotsuma, near Tsukuba Circuit proper," Ko-chan answered discretely. "Try asking Ossan, though. I heard he's from Ibaraki."

"Ah, man…" Akio sighed. "You know I don't enjoy dealing with that guy…"

"I know. Just give it a shot. Who knows, you might get something useful," Ko-chan replied. "Anyway, you know Speedbump's number, do you?"

"Yeah, I know. Thanks for the info, Ko-chan!" Akio gave a closing remark. "I'll meet you when I get back from here!"

Akio paused for a bit after Ko-chan hung up, before dialing another number.

"Hello! Speedbump here, what can I do for you?" an enthusiastic voice replied from across the line.

"Ossan? Hi, I'm Akio Asakura," Akio mentioned, slightly wincing. "I heard you came from Ibaraki so I want to ask a few things…"

"Oh, Devilman! Sure, sure, ask away!" The man only referred to as Ossan enthusiastically replied.

…

Akio woke up early the next day, having pocketed the names of some cheaper auto parts seller in the Mito area from Ossan. He'd probably get some manual-reading done, and then shop for parts today. Afterwards, he wanted to check the garage's tools; he had vaguely spotted a homemade hoist somewhere it there, but how to work it without a winch had eluded him.

"Good morning," Akio greeted the Shinoharas, who are gathered by the dining table.

"Good morning, Akio-kun," Chihiro returned Akio's greeting. "What's your plan for today?"

"Not much… probably going to shop for parts after I read up the manual on the Roadster," Akio replied simply. "Are you free today, Chihiro-san? I was thinking if you could give me directions…"

"Umm… I have a ten o'clock appointment with a lecturer, and all afternoon for volunteer work…" Chihiro mentioned. "If we have lunch on the go, I might be able to accompany you around lunchtime…"

"Why don't you take a day off from volunteering for today, Chihiro," Toushirou suggested. "You've been doing it all this month almost non-stop. I know it's an inner calling, but girls your age should have fun too."

"But Otou-san…" Chihiro objected. "I had enough fun already…"

"I can make do with a map," Akio commented as his aunt put a mug of tea in front of him.

"Oh, nonsense," Ayako chimed in. "Why don't you delegate for the time being, Chihiro… Akio isn't going to be here all year, you know…"

"But…" Chihiro still objected, but a knock on the front door interrupted her further objections.

"I'll get it," Ayako said.

"Hello everyone~" a lively voice greeted as the owner of the voice, a smallish girl decked in frills, settled at the end of the table.

"Oh, Yuka-san," Chihiro noted. "Are… you joining us for breakfast…?"

"Yeah. We're out of jams, and misoshiru isn't exactly my thing for breakfast," Yuka said gingerly. "Plus I have to take Red to the garage for routine oil change…"

"I don't think it'll going to be necessary for today, Yuka-chan," Toushirou said, drinking the last of his coffee. "This is Akio Asakura, a relative from Tokyo. He will be taking over on Himeko's car maintenance, at least for this summer vacation."

"Really?" Yuka said, taking a slice of cheese for her bread. "Doesn't look like much are you, kiddo?"

"Oh, please spare the cynicism," Akio shot back. "Himeko-san gave me her approval. Besides, I'm an experienced mechanic."

"Experienced? How many months?" Yuka replied with acid in her words. "Spending three months washing cars does not make one a mechanic, boy."

"Two years of tackling all sorts of machine grime for five days a week surely counts, girl," Akio returned with no less acidity. "Experienced enough to do most of my car's tuning on my own, in fact."

"Surely… Yuka-san only wants the best for the car… Akio-kun…" Chihiro tried to mediate the mounting tension.

"Ahh, alright…" Yuka grumbled, now tuning her killer sight to her sandwich. "I won't be responsible if Red suddenly break down, at least."

"Oh, she'll be better than ever, I can guarantee that," Akio drove his point down. "Thanks to your garage's shoddy work, I have my work cut out for me."

"Pah! I'd like to see you try, boy," Yuka shot back. "I'll glare at your back all day today, mock you silly until you make mistakes!"

"Err… Akio-san… Would you like… Yuka-san to accompany you around town, then?" Chihiro seized her opportunity.

"As long as she guides me good, I guess…" Akio grunted. "She looks like an Ojou[9] who would get lost a kilo off her house…"

"Excuse me? I drive to work every day, boy! I even drive to my drinking parties and back!" Yuka heatedly replied. "I'll show you every nook and cranny Mito has to offer, just you see!"

"Kids these days, going all tsun… tsun… what was that called?" Toushirou remarked the little scene with a smile.

"Tsun… jire, was it?" Ayako replied, giggling softly.

…

"Onee-chan?" Chihiro greeted as she entered Himeko's room.

"Oh, hello Chihiro," the ill girl replied, craning up from her map. "Are you working the morning shift?"

"No, I just drop by before college," Chihiro remarked. "Mother made you some sandwiches…"

"Thank you, just when I am getting bored to the menu, too," Himeko intoned coolly as she accepted the sandwich-filled bento box. "How's my Roadster doing, by the way?"

"Akio-kun is probably looking for the manuals now…" Chihiro remarked. "He said he wants to read it up first… after that he'll shop for parts with Yuka-san."

"You're not exactly making your position better, you know," Himeko coyly teased. "You have even more competition now that Yuka got involved…"

"O-onee-chan mou!" Chihiro shot back, flustered. "He's our cousin!"

"So what? Marriage between cousins is legal, you know," Himeko teased further. "It'll take a really dumb girl to pass on him."

"But th-that's…" Chihiro mumbled.

"He's quite a good man," Himeko remarked, patting Chihiro's shoulder. "Not the straightest-flying arrow, but good enough. I'd say he'll match you better than with Yuka."

"Mou…" Chihiro grunted.

"Now, you said you were only dropping by," Himeko coolly said. "Won't you get late if you dally here longer?"

"R-right," Chihiro said, preparing to leave. "Be sure to take your medication, okay?"

"Yes, Matron~" Himeko replied half-mockingly.

A few minutes after Chihiro left, a nurse enters the room.

"Let's get your midmorning readings, Himeko-chan," the nurse said, settling her utensils on the bed while Himeko puts her book at a side table.

"Hai hai, Nami-san," Himeko complied, rolling her sleeve up one arm. "By the way, have my order of narcissus bulbs came?"

"Yep. My brother will deliver it around eleven or so," the nurse said as she slipped the digital thermometer to Himeko's left armpit. "It's a fresh batch and the first of this production year, straight from the famed Awajishima nurseries."

"Is that so…" Himeko thoughtfully remarked.

"I won't recommend planting it until next month, though," the nurse chided gently as she set her stethoscope. "Even if you plant it right away, it won't sprout until the time comes, and it may even rot if watered too much."

"I know, you're my botany teacher anyway," Himeko grunted as she felt the pressure on the manometer's cuff increase.

"Who's that guy, I wonder? Hmm, 120/80… that's great," Nami asked, while noting the readings on the manometer. "He's been a hot topic in the nurse's station, you know."

"He's Chihiro's boyfriend," Himeko stated with a hint of a conspiratorial tone. "But don't ask her about it, she'll just deny it strongly."

"You're lying," Nami accused playfully. "He's so young! But I won't mind dating younger guys, for a piece of beefcake that fine."

"You Christmas cake," Himeko snarled between giggles, as the thermometer clamped in her armpit sounded a beep. "But seriously, he's my mechanic. He'll be taking care of my car for the summer vacation."

"I'll let him into my bonnet anytime!" Nami quipped. "Hmm, 36.8 degrees. Not bad."

…

"Sure you don't want to visit Himeko-nee?" Akio asked one last time as he dropped Yuka in front of her house.

"Naah. I still need to lie down. God, you really are a sicko behind the wheel," Yuka grunted, her palms and face very pale.

"Your choice then," Akio said. "Thanks for footing the bill, though."

"That's nothing," Yuka grunted before ambling to the house.

Akio shrugged, before starting the Roadster and driving away. A few minutes later, he had found himself looking for a parking space in the St. Teresa Hospital's[9] parking lot. The afternoon is creeping by, taking the midday's stifling heat with it. Akio found a parking space shaded by nearby trees, and locked the car.

"Akio-chaa~n," a voice called as Akio walked past a flower garden.

Akio quickly turned towards the call. There, he saw Himeko relaxing on a park bench, a small stack of books to her left-hand side. A straw hat frames her face, carefree smile decorating it. A small fan completes it all.

"Himeko-nee," Akio greeted while taking the seat next to Himeko. "Getting some fresh air?"

"Yep! I've wanted to plant narcissus bulbs, but my botany teacher advises me not to," Himeko said, while glancing to the empty patch not a few yards from the bench.

"Narcissus?" Akio asked off-handedly.

"Yeah. My order just came, delivered straight from the narcissus capital of Japan, Awajishima![10]" Himeko proudly exclaimed. "The best and the whitest, they would say… say, how was your love-love shopping with Yuka?"

"Ehh… well, we did buy some basic supplies… oils, oil filter, air filter, coolants, brake fluid, some lines for the brakes, spark plugs…" Akio listed his purchases from off his mind. "She's nice enough to foot the supply bills in exchange for lunch."

"Oh ho~ Nice going there Akio-chan~" Himeko remarked with a teasing tone. "So… which would be good for our race queen? I like Yuka's frills and all, but Chihiro will look better in a race queen suit, don't you think?"

"Himeko-nee…" Akio replied sheepishly. "Eh, what's this? Top Gear Japan?"

"Yes, they help ward off boredom…" Himeko said. "Not to mention that they have event calendars and all that."

"Don't tell me…" Akio cautiously intoned. "You're aiming for the next RoadSpec race… the one in Tsukuba…?"

"Now that you told me~" Himeko coyly said. "Will Mach 5 be ready for that day, Sabu?"

"Himeko-nee… please think of your health for once," Akio replied in dismay, noticing a folded corner on the page detailing the next RoadSpec race. "Let me race in your stead, at least."

"You don't have a racing license, dummy. Besides, such a victory will not be mine, won't it?" Himeko wistfully said, a sad smile forming on her lips. "I need that victory, Sabu."

"I don't know…" Akio relented, his eyes quickly poring on the event's particulars. "It depends on what class you look forward in entering. If you're aiming to enter the Stock class, I can be quite quick in doing it since I think that class forbids engine tuning in any way. The FT class, on the meantime…"

"That much is enough, I guess," Himeko said while getting up. "By the way, Akio… did you drive my Roadster when you go shopping?"

"Yeah. It's pretty balanced and really wieldy," Akio remarked. "I might have gone a little overboard, though. I didn't know Yuka-san can get really carsick…"

"You didn't…" Himeko intoned, keeping her laugh suppressed.

"I only hit eighty kilometers per hour…" Akio grunted, his gaze fixed on his own shoe. "On a rather busy street…"

"Oh Akio, you're so precious!" Himeko guffawed.

…

The next day was a rather busy day for Akio. He worked since after breakfast, tuning the world out to get that extra concentration he need. He started by hoisting the car off the ground, and even that has proven to be a monumental task. For starters, there is no winch, so Akio has to jack the car up with the hoist and harness alone. The Roadster is said to be a light car, but that term still equals something literally just short of a ton. Akio couldn't help to admire Himeko's sheer tenacity and perseverance. _For an amateur like her to be able to restore a heap of near-useless junk into a passably-functioning car is a great feat_, Akio thought.

Idle daydream was not Akio's goal, though. After the hoisting was taken care of, he moved on to draining the oil from the engine block. With a little effort and the correct tool from the nearby toolbox, Akio succeeded in opening the oil drain valve, splashing used motor oil into a bucket he had prepared. Content on waiting on the oil to fully drain from the engine block, Akio settled on a small stool.

"Hey," Yuka greeted rather succinctly.

"Oh, hello Yuka-san," Akio returned the greeting.

"You almost ruined my workshift," the older girl grunted. "My manager yelled at me for nearly puking on merchandise…"

"I'm… sorry, Yuka-san," Akio sincerely apologized. "Himeko-san kind of told me yesterday that you're not good with high speeds… after I drop you home."

"Good. Don't ever speed on me again," Yuka grunted. "So how is Red's maintenance doing?"

"Well, I'm now waiting for the oil to drain fully first, then I'll replace the oil filters and then pour the new oil into the engine," Akio explained. "After that, I'll replace the spark plugs and air filter, add coolants and lubes, and start the engine. Then I'll see if this car would need a new timing belt or not. I think the brake fluid should be added, too. I'll check for the basic electronics, too… see if any fuses need replacing. If it keeps shorting out then I guess I have get this car to a garage for electrical checks."

"You two," Yuka snarled. "You two are a match made in hell. Both of you are driving demon, gear head, oil-drinking headcases[11]."

"…I really don't know if that's a compliment or not," Akio sheepishly replied. "You work afternoon shifts, do you Yuka-san?"

"Only on days like these. Afternoon shifts really mess up one's bio-clock," Yuka remarked. "Tell me, why do you two love cars very much?"

"Eh? Well, I don't know about Himeko-san, but I drive for the rush," the younger male said. "Feeling that turbo surge kick in when you go into fifth gear… it's a wonderful feeling."

"I can never understand you gearheads…" Yuka grunted in annoyance as Akio glances at the oil bucket.

"Hmm, I thought so," Akio noted to himself. "Guess it's changing the oil filter next. Yuka-san, do you want to help me?"

"Pass~" Yuka replied. "I have no intention on being smudged by oil. Bye then."

"Thanks again for footing the bill, Yuka-san!" Akio hollered from under the suspended car.

"Poor mechanics should just shut up and do their job!" Yuka shot back.

…

A few days passed as Akio made his way in maintenance of the so-called Mach 5. The electrical systems of the car turned out surprisingly good, partially to the lack of complicating creature comfort other cars usually had. Akio then only replaced the aging battery, just in case. Every other things are taken care of, from many aging tubes to the radiator coolant. Akio starts to feel the déjà vu of the work, like restoring the Devil Z from its scrapyard state to its full 650 bhp monstrous glory, all over again.

With a satisfied feeling, he started the car and revved it to half its maximum spin. The machine roared a crisp bellow, much to Akio's pride. He knew that even though almost a week ago the machine was sputtering quite a deal, now it's as close as new as it gets.

"Good morning, Akio-kun," Chihiro greeted, all decked for college.

"Good morning too, Chihiro-san," Akio replied. "It's finally ready for the world of speed."

"Do you mean the Roadster?" Chihiro asked, a bit of curiosity in her voice.

"Yeah. She sure sings like a choir now," Akio remarked, satisfied smile adorning his face. "I think I'll go to a garage to get some balancing and dyno tests done."

"O-oh…" Chihiro thoughtfully replied, overwhelmed by Akio's barrage of technobabble. "Well, I suppose that's good then…"

"Are you going to the college?" Akio asked, breaking the lull of Chihiro's confusion. "I can take you if you like."

"You don't have to," Chihiro replied. "I am going to drop by at the hospital first…"

"That's just along the way, Chihiro-san," Akio deadpanned. "Hop in, I'll get my jacket real quick, okay?"

"Okay then…" Chihiro finally relented.

The drive was a very short one, and Chihiro bade farewell at the entrance of the hospital. Akio then continued on his way, but not before noticing a pink-clad woman after the next intersection.

"Hello missy, care for a tea with me?[12]" Akio hollered while slowing the car down just beside the girl.

"Ara, I would love to, sir," the slender girl clad in pink pajamas replied, while climbing into the car. "What a nice car. Where did you get it, sir? Don't tell me you cheated a girl to get it?"

"Eheheheh, you got me. So, where shall we go to, Himeko-nee?" Akio asked sheepishly. "If we are really going out for tea, you'd have to tell me where since I don't know any good cafes here."

"Hmm… drive on. We're going to the Akanedani Station… I heard it's nearer to the hospital than the Banshourin Station[13]," the older girl commanded. "Er, why are you taking off your jacket?"

"Wear it over your pajamas, Himeko-nee," the younger boy instructed as he dumped her jacket to the older woman's lap. "I… don't want us to get weird stares."

"Eeeh? But this is my uniform~" Himeko protested. "It's part of the character-type appeal, you know!"

"I… don't really want people to get the impression of an illicit relationship or anything, really…" Akio sheepishly rebuked as he changed into the second gear. "It's as if I'm taking you hostage or something…"

"Well, that's too bad~!" Himeko cooed. "Because I'm staying in my uniform. Now drive."

After a few minutes' drive, they managed to find their way to the aforementioned station. People are milling here and there, the dwindling rush hour traffic still propelling them about in their business.

"Whoops, I guess I should get a disguise anyway," Himeko quickly don the jacket, putting the collar a bit high so it will obscure her face. "There are a few people who knew me… that's a doctor on the fourth, and that's the head nurse for the sixth…"

"I see… should I lose them? Shouldn't be that hard if I put up the roof…" Akio volunteered.

"Naah, it's okay. They'll probably roll their eyes and go about like nothing happens," Himeko waved the younger boy's concern aside.

"Very well then, miss," Akio said, smiling a bit. "Where is this tea house you wish to go to?"

"Let's find a parking lot first," Himeko suggested. "Oh, and Akio…"

"Yes?" Akio replied.

"Your jacket… has a very manly smell on it…" Himeko sighed almost-dreamily.

"O-oi! I-I washed it!" Akio blabbed, caught off-guard by the remark. Himeko only giggled.

They circled around the station for a bit, and finally found a parking lot. After locking the door and erecting the roof, they walked towards the station, passing a row of specialty and knick-knack shops along the row. Himeko's unhurried steps, however, stops in front of a pawn shop.

"What's the matter, Himeko-nee?" Akio asked, finding the sight rather odd.

"Let's have a look in this shop," the ill girl intoned, firm resolution backing the words.

"Welcome, welcome~" an old man greeted the duet from behind the counter. "Feel free to look around. I don't sell weapons and their supplies, but you can ask for nearly everything else. Chances are I have it."

"Do you happen to have a racing suit set, ojiisan?" Himeko quickly asked.

"Racing suits, eh… hmm… I think I may have a few… stupid hashiriya kids sometimes pawn their racing gear here, too," the old man replied. Akio cringed a bit when the old man mentioned his kin. "Let me have a look in the storage first."

"Well, I don't know if you are the stupid or the clever kind of hashiriya, Akio-chan~" Himeko quipped lightly as the old man went out of their sight. "Clever enough to repair somebody else's car, I see…"

"Er… eheheh," Akio sheepishly replied. "I'm not sure of that… driving a tuned 240Z sporting a machine stronger than most Ferrari can seem outrageously stupid at times…"

"Yep! Here are some newer ones. There are a few more back there but they're mostly cheap show-off pieces," the old man said, emerging from the back of the shop with a two small pile of veritable racing gears neatly packed into plastic bags. "These are all the real things, fire protection and all."

"Woah," Himeko gawked at the sheer variety of the selection, despite the rather innocuous nature of the shop.

"How about this white one? Its insides is padded for some impact protection, and also lined with fire-resistant fabric…" the old man offered. "I think it'll be quite a tight fit for you boy, but it comes with a matching crash helmet and gloves."

"Oh no, you're mistaken, old man," Akio replied to the seller. "She's the one buying. She's looking for a good costume for next month's RoadSpec."

"Wow, never thought that you have that calling for speed, miss," the old seller. "Do forgive me. I'll give you a discount for the white one, crash helmet gloves and all."

"Oh I don't know~" Himeko said coyly. "Six thousand?"

"Six and a half. They're national standards compliant, if I'm not mistaken," the old seller bargained. "Besides, it'll be a perfect fit for you, miss."

"Do try it on first," Akio interceded. "If it's too large, it won't do any good."

"Can I?" Himeko asked the seller.

"Go ahead," the seller said as he opened the plastic wrapping.

Himeko gingerly eyed the piece, before divesting the jacket on her and handing it back to Akio. She then proceeds to put the racing outfit on, zipping it up all the way to the neck. The plain white racing suit fits her well, although its maker clearly intended it to be worn by a male since it is loose in a few places on Himeko's frame.

"See? It's a perfect fit. I'd say it was made for you missy, if I don't know better," the old man said, smiling gently.

"You're right. Ne, Akio…" Himeko said as she turned to her escort boy. "Can you…"

"I won't have it any other way. Oji-san has been footing half of the bill for your car's repairs while Yuka paid the other half… consider this my gift to you," Akio replied. "Deal, jii-san. Give us the rest of the merchandise."

"Okie dokie," the old man replied. "Oh, and do a favor for me. Win the championship if you can."

"We don't intend to lose, at least," Himeko said cheerily while getting out from her new racing suit. The old man grinned as he re-packed the suit with the gloves and put it into the white helmet. Akio paid him promptly.

* * *

**Glossaries and Miscellany**

[7]: Before the more racing-savvy people start crying Did Not Do Research at me, yes I'm aware that Spec Miata racing don't actually kick off until 2006 or so, and it have never happened in Japan (as far as my research say, anyway). The reason I put Spec Miata racing here is that I need a 'base' for the RoadSpec competition, and by proxy a reason for Himeko to get a racing license and a Miata (Mazda MX-5), and Formula Mazda or sort does not really have an 'amateur' vibe to it. You'll see the relevance later on.

[8]: 'Ojou' means 'princess'. The connotation here is that Yuka can't do scrap, like a cloistered princess.

[9]: The name of the hospital in Narcissu and Narcissu 2 was never given (or I hasn't noticed enough), so I guess St. Teresa Hospital would fit rather well for a Christian hospital name. There are several Saints named Teresa in Christian history (some even attaining the rank of Doctor of The Church), but Mother Teresa (as per writing) is still Blessed Mother Teresa so the inspiration is not (fully) hers.

[10]: I may not get the fact that Awajishima as the narcissus-planting capital of Japan right, but you should already know what the significance of this little fact if you already played Narcissu; For those who have yet to play, I'll just say that Awajishima plays a huge role in the plot of Narcissu and it involves narcissus blooms to an extent.

[11]: I don't really know Brit English, though I think a 'headcase' means a loony person.

[12]: This is considered a standard pickup line in Japan, if clichéd and incredibly cheesy.

[13]: I thought giving the 'A and B Station' names will better immerse the readers into the story. Not that I know if Akanedani and Banshourin are actual names of train stations in Mito.

* * *

**A/N**: So how was it? I think the next update will be a tad longer than this. Why the different title? Gratituous German of course. Please tell me how you feel by clicking that review button there and writing a review!


	3. Wind Climbing

DISCLAIMER: All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts are_ in italic_.

* * *

**_Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst_**

_Chapter 3: Wind Climbing

* * *

_

After putting the racing kit set in the trunk of the car, they strolled to the café at a corner of the road near the station. They ordered iced tea and french fries, if only to hold off their hunger before actual lunchtime.

"So, how about your car?" Akio asked as he drank the iced tea. "I have done what I can. The only thing left is to balance the car, but I guess it can wait until we get some good racing rims."

"You done a better job than I do, Sabu~" the older women replied. "I bet the car gets over a hundred horsepower now… enough to win the race, maybe? It really feels that we have a chance now!"

"I'm happy for your positivity, Himeko-nee… but we still have to prepare your car to actually be competition-worthy. First thing to consider is a rollcage, in case the car tumbles for whatever reason," Akio rattled his explanation. "It also adds to the rigidity of the car, so your handling will also improve. After that, we must also equip the car with a bucket seat for safety. Then comes the racing rims and tires to improve grip. That is just the beginning… if we want to revamp the brakes and suspension, it will surely be more expensive."

"Even with only the crucial modifications, it surely won't be cheap…" Himeko sighed.

"Well… I have some savings I can draw from," Akio cautiously mentioned. "I was going to use them to restore and improve my car, but now… this seemed more appropriate."

"Thanks, Sabu-hakase[14]," Himeko said wistfully. "I guess now my mind is set on who gets the car after I die…"

"Himeko-nee…" Akio paused.

"Well, that's that, and this is this. Let's concentrate for the race, shall we Sabu?" Himeko cut Akio short, the vigor behind the voice mostly back.

"Ah… well, I think my savings will be enough for a rollcage and bucket seat," Akio said tentatively. "But for the rims and tires, I will need to… borrow, I guess."

"There's nothing left for us to do, then…" Himeko sighed heavily. "Let's go public about this. Who knows how many people actually find me able to win…"

"I knew some people rich enough to spare us some money… but I don't know if I can persuade them," Akio muttered.

"Just try and talk to them. I'll talk to Mother and Father," Himeko uttered. "They'll surely object, but hey. At least they deserved to know that much."

An uneasy silence descended upon them for a while. Himeko nibbled at some french fries thoughtfully, while Akio drank his iced tea slowly in contemplation. The heightening sun heats the air around them, slowly drawing out their sweat.

"Should we be going back to the hospital?" Akio tried to restart the conversation.

"Say, Akio… why don't we go to a beach tomorrow?" Himeko countered. "I don't feel like being in the hospital…"

"It's okay with me, but wouldn't you need a doctor's permission or something?" Akio asked back.

"With good enough stealth, you can slip out of the hospital quite easily, actually," Himeko answered the question lightly.

"Very well, then… what time should I pick you up?" Akio replied.

"As early as you can muster… seven, I guess? They change nurses at seven, and I think I can arrange for my getaway with my accomplice," Himeko explained, much to Akio's chagrin.

"You sound like a criminal, Himeko-nee…" Akio grunted.

"Oh, and do fill the Roadster's gas. We may need it for a bit of practice," Himeko finished her sentence.

…

Dinner passed by rather quietly, with Chihiro decidedly glaring daggers to Akio for some reason. Akio contemplated on calling the two people he had in mind as backers for Himeko's endeavor, but elected to wait until the night grow a little bit later. After all, they may still be working at these hours.

In the meantime, he pored on the rules and regulations for the upcoming race from the brochure he picked up from a local Japan Auto Federation branch, intent of using every single advantage he could find to help achieve victory. Hmm, brake and suspension mods are forbidden, I guess, Akio mused as he finished reading the rules the first time around. No turbos, either. We may have a little advantage here since Himeko-nee is rather light…

The clock struck eleven as the erstwhile mechanic got up from his seat and made up his mind. He would make those calls now. The first number leads to a female celebrity, just about the only person Akio knew from the showbiz.

"Hello~ this is Reina Akikawa speaking. Who is this, I wonder?" a cheerful, if slightly tired-sounding voice greets Akio from across the line.

"Reina-san? This is me, Akio Asakura…" Akio returned the greeting. "Got a minute?"

"Sure. We're having a break, anyway," the twenty-something public figure said. "For what do I have the pleasure of having this talk, anyway?"

"I have a favor to ask you…" Akio cautiously proceeded. "Lend me some cash."

"Hmm… my rates are exorbitant, you know," Reina teased. "I thought you had the Devil and all of its repair expenses under control?"

"This is not for the Devil Z," Akio replied, still cautious. "A… racing team I'm working in is entering the next Mazda RoadSpec competition in Tsukuba early next month. I'm doing it for my cousin. She had this planned for a long time."

"…Well, I can get a sponsorship deal for you, if that's what you want. Summer season break of shooting sessions are fast approaching, and in the next months I may have some free time for lobbying people," Reina ventured a guess.

"I don't know if anyone would want to sponsor a ragtag band of my sort," Akio replied, uncertainty starting to cloud his mind. "I'm a hashiriya part-time mechanic, and my driver is a cancer patient…"

"Akio… you're not kidding me, don't you?" Reina intoned. "Is that really true?"

"I've told better lies, Reina-san," Akio replied in dismay. "I'm not the kind of guy to use that schtick anyway, and being discovered as a cancer patient is probably not in her intention either."

"She could generate a lot of buzz for cancer welfare, you know. Social organizations would probably flock to your… team, with cash," Reina said.

"I don't know, Reina-san. It sounds… impure, for some reason," Akio uttered in defeat. "Sure, I'd go along with this if it's for that kind of charity purpose, but her intent… is not as good as that, I guess. It's wholly personal."

"Still, I guess it isn't really a wrong cause to make use of charity funds…" Reina sighed as she continued. "How much would you need, anyway?"

"Around a hundred and fifty thousand, maybe up to two hundred[a] I guess. We're entering the Stock class, so no engine, brake, or suspension modification is allowed although we're allowed to replace brake pads," Akio mentioned the number. "I already have some funds, but I guess it'll only do for the rollcage and bucket seat. We'll need a lot of racing tires, and maybe some good rims. After that, I also need to replace the brake pads."

"Hmm, I see. That's quite low for racing standards… I'll see what we can do. We still have around a month, right?" Reina soothingly said. "Call me again, um… two weeks from now. I do hope your cause could win some donations from my friends."

"Thanks a lot, Reina-san," the younger boy said, letting go of his held breath.

"Make sure your lady driver had my regards, then," Reina concluded, a little teasing evident in her voice. "You two will win this."

"Thanks again for the vote of confidence," Akio sincerely concluded. _Now that's done… Time for the next name from the list…_ Akio thought as he dialed the other number he knew.

"dr. Tatsuya Shima[15] speaking," an icy, controlled voice spoke from across the line.

"Ah… hi Shima," Akio replied the greeting. "Asakura here… got a minute?"

"Let me just pull over for a second…" Tatsuya replied, his tone indicating that he's driving. "Okay. Care to tell me what this is for? The only times you'd call this number are when you need to set up a run."

"Naah… this is a little different," Akio said, pressure once again mounting on him. "Can you spare me some… er, donations? I'm entering next month's RoadSpec competition in Tsukuba…"

"…Are you kidding me?" the cool surgeon flatly asked after five seconds of silence, certainly dumbfounded. "Do you even have any racing license for that matter?"

"Uhh… that didn't come out right. I'm the mechanic," Akio sheepishly corrected himself, "For my cousin's… team or sorts. She had a Rank A JAF Racing License, and she intend to race once I brought her Roadster up to regulations."

"I see. The best of luck for your team, then," Shima coolly replied. "As for monetary favors… I don't think I can help. Keeping Blackbird up to its reputation is expensive, you know… not to mention taxes."

"Er… anything else you can do?" Akio pressed a little.

"Hmm… you're racing in Tsukuba, eh? Come to think about it, there's somebody I knew who frequents Tsukuba and knew the line well," the surgeon continued. "His name is dr. Toshiya Joushima. I think I still have his number here…"

"Okay… got it, thanks," Akio replied after jotting down a number in a scrap paper.

"Perhaps your cousin can learn a thing or two from him. I think I remember him saying that he ran a close second to Keiichi Tsuchiya's time attack record in Tsukuba," Shima continued. "Not a guarantee or something, but do mention my name to him. He'll understand."

"Thanks, man. I'll make sure he gets your regards," Akio concluded the call, sighing in relief for the second time that night. That's enough for the night, I don't want to push my luck too much… the young mechanic-sans-street racer thought. Little did he know, that a pair of eyes was discretely eyeing him.

…

The time was six thirty in the morning, and Akio is already up and about. He has got rid the miscellaneous toolkits from the trunk of Himeko's roadster last night after phoning Tatsuya, pulling out all sorts of wondrous tools from inside it. Preparedness is all good, really, but what owner of city-going car in their right sane mind kept a backsaw in one's trunk? Akio wondered as he checked the spare tire for signs of damage last night.

As Akio tiptoed to the dark kitchen to look for the Miata's keys, a light pat on his shoulder nearly made him jump.

"A-ayako-san?" the youth groggily asked.

"Let's talk for a bit, Akio-kun," the aunt discretely said, waving the car keys slightly. "I heard… interesting things when I went out for the toilet last night."

"Uhh… and that matter is linked to me…?" Akio said, playing dumb.

"Well, you were on the phone last night," the Shinohara matriarch pressed her advantage. "And Chihiro said that Himeko went missing for a good half of a day yesterday…"

"Uh… busted, I guess…?" the youth started to proverbially sweat.

"Really, you two… just what are you two planning, hmm?" Ayako sighed, having cracked through the youngster's defense in ten seconds flat. "Chihiro won't be amused, you know. If anything, she is furious of your little escapade yesterday. Poor girl, she's just too concerned about her sister's well-being."

"It's only fair… if you heard it from Himeko-nee herself, Oba-san," Akio softly said. "She said that she intends to tell you and Toushirou-jisan in person. I don't want to overstep my boundaries."

"That child…" Ayako sighed. "She always had her own way, like a rushing river. She worked so hard in maid cafes to get that car."

Himeko in a maid getup, that's a new imagery for Akio to wrap his mind on. _She must be quite a looker in that getup to be able to work at a cafe_, Akio thought as he gulped a wad of spit. _Even with her rather emaciated form now, she can still make a passable French Maid…_

"Well anyway… please tell her to take it easy, Akio-kun," Ayako said softly as she brought up Akio's hand and put the Roadster's keys on them. "And we're waiting for her to tell us."

"Thanks… Oba-san," Akio muttered. "I'll make sure that she lives to take the challenge… I promise."

"Now run along. You won't want to keep our little princess waiting," Ayako said. "We'll handle Chihiro."

The drive from the house to the hospital is mercifully short. Akio parked the car in a secluded corner, before making his way to a vending machine to get a coffee. Coffee in hand, he waited in a corner of the outpatient's entrance/exit.

"Hello~ handsome," Nami greeted Akio as she came in from the entrance. "Caught a cold?"

"Eh, err… Nami-san… was it?"Akio replied groggily. Not only is he not prepared for that line, she also hit him with seduction at six forty-five in the morning.

"So, are you going to see your cousin?" the nurse tried to strike up a conversation. "I thought you're going out with Chihiro-chan?"

"Nami, please don't tease him first thing in the morning…" Himeko interrupted as she showed up, a small purse adorning her standard pink pajamas.

"Hai hai~" Nami backed off as the cancer patient made herself known. "So, should I cover for you today?"

"Only if there are doctors. The other nurses are already quite fed up with my antics to care anyway," Himeko straightened the detail. "And I guess I am not expecting any serious visitations today. Watch out for those interns though, let them experiment on somebody else from the lower floors."

"Roger that. If you can buy me and the other nurses a tub of Haagen-Dazs, I will be grateful," the nurse coyly mentioned her price.

"I'll see what I can do. Choco chip, put in the nurse's fridge in the seventh floor, labeled as 'Nami's Ice'?" Himeko said lightly.

"As usual," Nami finished as she shook Himeko's hand. "Have fun out there and take it easy, okay?"

"I will~" Himeko replied. "Now, are we going to go or not, Sabu?"

"The Roadster is parked at the back. We'll stop at a konbini[16] for some take-outs to eat on the go," Akio mentioned. "I'm quite starving."

"Good enough for me. I hope they have oden or the likes," Himeko said, trailing Akio as he led the way to the car. "Because onigiri or cup ramen[17] isn't really my preferred breakfast item, you know?"

"So, Himeko-nee," Akio said as he started the car. "I called the people I thought could help. It turned out… quite okay."

"Our budget is covered, then?" the cancer patient said, smirking. "Man, you're such an all-in-one person. This is the best hire in the history of the team."

"Not… quite, but my friend will do what she can. I hope she can make it," the hashiriya said as they exited the hospital. "Better still, a friend of mine recommended a trainer for you. He said that the trainer is a Tsukuba Circuit regular and knew its best lines well."

"Is there anything you and your friends can not do, I wonder?" Himeko wondered, eyes rolling.

"Just pray that our trainer won't charge," Akio grunted.

...

They finally found a convenience store a few kilometers from the hospital, and shopped for their journey. After they finished packing their things into the trunk save from some provisions for breakfast, they switched seats. Now, the car is steered by its rightful owner.

"Aaah~ I haven't steered in quite a few years!" Himeko happily chirped. "I do hope my skills haven't gone rusty…"

"Now where are we going? To the beach we usually frequent when we were kids?" Akio asked while opening an onigiri for himself.

"Nope, that place will probably be jam-packed in vacation season like this. I had this special place I found while cruising with Yuka-chan," Himeko said as she started the engine. "It's nice and quiet, even at the height of summer vacation. It's unfortunately quite far… about two hour and a half drive. We have to go through a mountain pass, even."

"Fine with me," Akio stated after he washed a bite of onigiri with a gulp of bottled tea. "You also need to brush up on your driving. Consider it a warm-up round."

"Okie dokie," the cancer patient chuckled as she gently pressed the gas pedal. "Do instruct me though. I'm probably forgotten half of my racing license lessons already."

And so, the odd couple went off to their destination after a quick gas-filling stop at the next gas station. They tore through the countryside roads with all the power and speed a 1990 Eunos Roadster can muster. As the road became curvier and more undulating, the Roadster's philosophy of Jinba Ittai[18] starts to shine. Himeko's cornering techniques were rather rusty from a few years of disuse, but Akio's snap judgment calls and the Roadster's ease of handling helped her not to slip from the road.

…

"Well, I suppose that's quite a good time," Akio stated as they slowed at a roadside in the beach region Himeko set as their destination. "We got here in an hour and fifty minutes. That's forty minutes off the predicted time, quite a good job if I must say."

"All thanks to your repairs, Sabu~" Himeko said as she opened and devoured a sandwich with relish. "Really, the pedal felt more responsive than when I first restored it. The brakes are also quite good, despite you saying that you haven't replaced the old brake pads."

"Your old fuel line and brake tubing probably had something to do with it. I replaced them all," Akio replied as he stretched his hand over his head, feeling the light breeze on his hair. "You're right… this beach looks so quiet! It's almost like a deserted island."

"Hehe~ this place is my secret training spot, you know," the seventh floor denizen stated proudly, chest puffed as the car went into a small, empty parking lot. "I used to practice turns and braking over sandy roads along the coast here. It worked wonders! The sand made tires really slippy at times, especially on dry windy days."

"Is that so…" Akio mumbled as he gazed around the beach. There was summarily nothing around but this parking lot, a small stall-of-sorts without any apparent occupant, a row of lavatory-slash-changing rooms and a few vending machines.

"Unnn~" Himeko groaned lightly as she got out from the car and stretched. "So, how did an open top feel? Pretty refreshing, eh?"

"Yeah, to be able to feel the air rush by your hair like that… it's a great feeling," Akio commented as he checked out the trunk for some onigiri, having exited the car before Himeko did. "Yesterday in the city can't even begin to compare with now! I guess Roadsters and the wilderness were really made for each other."

"Hehe… that's part of the reason I bought it, too…" Himeko sighed, her gaze far and introspective. "So! Let's have an obligatory beach episode of your summer vacation, shall we?"

"Let's," Akio replied.

The duet then took a stroll, plastic bags containing their food and drink for light brunch slung at Akio's shoulders. Akio were marveling the great scenery, while Himeko's gaze seemed nostalgic. After strolling for a few minutes, they found a place with less shifty sands and elected to sit there.

"So Akio-chan, tell me about your car in detail," Himeko said as she opened a can of orange juice. "You told me the make, but I hadn't quite heard the particulars yet."

"It's quite a long and unique story," Akio started. "Sure you want to hear it?"

"Silly Akio, we have all day!" Himeko giggled while hugging her knees.

"…Right, I forgot," Akio sheepishly replied. "For starters, the car is rumored to be cursed. People who knew the car's history call it Devil Z."

"Oooh, a ghost story! Do continue!" Himeko cooed, clearly interested.

"Well, the junkyard dealer who sold it to me said that four owners before me died of crashes, while the one guy who still lived after owning this car before me was forced to sell the car cheaply because his company is going bankrupt," Akio resumed telling his story, casting a sidelong glance to Himeko. "As luck has it, the man who originally owned and tuned this car turns out to have an almost identical name with me. I just kind of went along with that."

"Man, that's cool. I mean, how small are the odds of this actually happening?" Himeko marveled. "So, why haven't you died yet?"

"Why indeed…" Akio mused before pausing for a bit. He's really unsure of what to say next.

"Well, don't let that question bog you down," Himeko gently patted the youngster's shoulder. "Do continue."

"Uh… yeah. So when I came across Devil Z in the junkyard, I knew I had just struck gold," Akio resumed his tale of Devil Z, a slight uneasiness weighing his voice. "It's lightened as best as it can be without stripping the interior, the machine is tuned to its very limits, its suspension hardened to as hard as it can be within safety limits… it's a wonder why someone, even an auto-savvy cop, would leave that kind of treasure in a junkyard. Even the owner of the garage I worked in knew that the car is made in a feat of serious engineering."

"That's destiny, I say," Himeko remarked. "So how does the car run?"

"Fast doesn't even begin to describe it, Himeko-nee," the hashiriya mechanic replied. "It's a mix between a sports car and a terrifying wild beast. The first time I drove the Devil, I misjudged a corner and spun before crashing quite hard. There were no lasting damage on it or me, but I bled quite a lot."

"Ouch," Himeko summarized her view of the event succinctly. "It seemed like an intriguing car. I'd love to drive it… if I had time."

"Himeko-nee…" Akio sighed. Even after knowing the older woman's outlook in life, he was still taken aback by how Himeko takes it all in a stride.

"Your face there," Himeko scolded playfully. "You want to ask me something, hmm?"

Akio nodded slightly, his expression rather cloudy.

"Go ahead, ask what you want," Himeko said as she reached for a bottled tea.

"Himeko-nee… about Chihiro," Akio started his question. "Are you two fighting? I… er, have been glared at quite bad last night."

"Of course we fight all the time. We're sisters," Himeko sighed. "But after I get sick, she… over-exaggerates things a lot."

"I don't know if I can sympathize with you on that… seeing that you're reckless like this," Akio came up with a comeback.

"People die, Akio. Whether they are just lounging around in their home or falling from an airplane when the time struck, people die when their time to die comes," Himeko replied gently. "And I… still have a few more things in my bucket list that I can't achieve by laying down in the seventh floor. Like an English proverb say, who dares wins."

A few minutes of silence reigned as Akio contemplated on what the older woman said. He saw a similarity in both himself and Himeko. They are both standing but an arm's length from Death's door; she is pushed towards it by her cancer, while he tempts Death almost daily by street-racing.

"Did you bring your swimming trunks, Akio-chan?" a sudden question from Himeko took Akio by surprise.

"E-eh?" Akio managed a response. "No, I guess…"

"What? You didn't bring your swim trunks to a beach at the height of summer vacation?" Himeko replied disappointedly. "What are you, a South Islander with perpetual sun all year round?"

"Of course I bring my swimming trunks from Tokyo," Akio replied, not wanting to get shot down by Himeko's words. "I just didn't think that we'd go to the beach to swim today…"

"Silly Akio," the seventh floor denizen scolded playfully again, while lazily flicking the tip of Akio's nose and getting up. "Well, we have no other choice then. Shall we take a skinny dip?"

"Hi-himeko-nee!" Akio blurted out, face red from the potential embarrassment.

"Aw come on, there are rarely people coming to this desolate beach anyway," Himeko lightly quipped while giving Akio a sly wink.

* * *

**Glossary:**

[14]: This is equivalent to saying "Doctor Sabu" or "Professor Sabu". The –hakase attachment to someone's name means that the person is really skilled in what s/he does, usually in a scientific field although it can be used outside it, too (think Croquette-hakase, the nickname given to Setsumi by Himeko in Narcissu 2).

[a]: For simplicity, I'm using an old rate of 100 yen = 1 US$. As far as the real value of the money go, $1500 gets a rollcage set for a Miata (MX-5) plus installation as of 2009. Of course, this is a work of fiction and the kind where accuracy plays second fiddle. I'm trying to keep it realistic within the bounds of my knowledge (which I admit is a bit narrow).

[15]: Between Shima Tatsuya and Tatsuya Shima, I chose Tatsuya Shima. It's not canon, but it sounds a bit better.

[16]: Konbini is a Japanese shorthand for 'convenience store'.

[17]: Oden is a kind of Japanese hotpot dish. Onigiri is best described as a ball of rice around the size of one's palm. Cup ramen is noodle and seasoning in a cup, and one adds hot water to prepare it. Most convenience stores in Japan sell all of these as food items, although oden pots (they're sold hot) are usually only available in winter.

[18]: This is an old Japanese yojijukugo (four-kanji idiom) which means 'horse and rider as one'. It's also the design philosophy of the Roadster/Miata, which in turn contributes to the car's reputation as an easy-to-handle sports car.

* * *

**A/N:** Well, what do you think? Let me know via a review! ;P


	4. Phantom Ensemble

**DISCLAIMER**: All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki, Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts and flashbacks are in italic. Flashbacks will be noted as such.

* * *

_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Chapter 4: Phantom Ensemble_

_

* * *

_

"Won't be much to see on me, either," the dark-haired girl coyly goes on.

"Uh… that's still…" Akio grunted, his face as red as boiled shrimp.

"Ah silly me," Himeko suddenly exclaimed, hitting her forehead lightly with her right palm. "I haven't taken my morning dessert."

"Morning… dessert?" Akio sighed in relief.

"Yeah, multivitamins and such," Himeko said. "Akio-chan, be a darling and bring me my purse plus something non-soda from the vending machine, will you?"

"Oh, okay," the young man said as he got up. "Any particular request, Little Princess?"

"Oh you," the little princess in question said as she plopped back down. "Something not apple-flavored would be nice. Run along now."

A few minutes pass by as Akio took a leisurely walk back to the parking lot and fetched the aforementioned purse. After that, he went to the vending machine, choosing pulpy orange juice as the drink. All his business done, he jogged back to where Himeko was waiting. The older woman was lying on compacted sand, enjoying the scenery and light breeze.

"Here you are, Himeko-nee," the younger man said, handing her a purse and a bottle of juice.

"Ah, thank you," Himeko said, getting up from her lying position. Quickly she sifted through some pills and knick-knacks in the purse, pulling out three small pills inside a plastic box labeled 'Tuesday'. Having done sorting, she quickly popped the pills before washing it down with juice. "Now to lie down and let them enter the blood…"

"I wish we bought those small caps…"Akio mused, while shielding his eye from the fierce midmorning summer sun. It was nowhere as hot as a few days ago, but hot enough to make a man sweat.

"Well, this beats that stuffy room anytime," Himeko chirped.

Together, the odd couple enjoyed the passing minutes. They exchanged small talks about weather, life in general, and anything that comes into their mind. They also brainstormed about the practice routines they would need to do for the race, but ultimately refrained from doing anything before they meet with the trainer Shima had mentioned in his conversation with Akio.

"Ara? Is that a car coming here?" Himeko said as she eyed a car rounding the far bend in the road.

"Where?" Akio replied, relieved for the welcome distraction from the heat. "Eeh, you're right… I guess this stretch of land isn't so desolate after all…"

They waited as the green car saunter by, stopping off the tarmac just short of the duet. The light green Subaru Vivio's[21] interior, Akio noted, is heavily adorned with frilly upholstery and decors. He also saw a great number of soft plush toys in there, enough to probably make one comfortably cushioned in the car.

"Yo!" the familiar driver greeted as she got out of the car. "It's quite a coincidence of meeting you two here!"

"Are you kidding… Yuka-san…?" Akio replied first, having overcame his shock quicker than Himeko. "I think… the distance alone is enough to discredit the 'coincidental' part."

"Aw shut up! Poor mechanics should just go back to tweaking cars," Yuka hotly countered. "When I say coincidence, it is coincidence!"

"Yuka…?" Himeko softly mumbled, almost sounding as a whimper.

"Yeah. What a nice coincidence, isn't it?" the frill-wearing young woman plods on without skipping a beat. "Ttaku[22]… making a paper driver[23] like me drive this far out… I'm not even sure I remembered the way…"

"But in the end, you did… thank you," Himeko sincerely said. "Well anyway… what is wrong with you? All that plushies and frill upholstery weigh at least fifty pounds! You can cut a second a lap dumping all that off!"

"Shut up! At least my new car had creature comfort! Satnav, aircon, and all!" Yuka countered. "Your car's so hot in summer, so cold in winter, and just makes yourself lost at times!"

"Well at least it can go faster!" Himeko snickered. "My team mechanic here assured that it is as fast as a stock Roadster can go!"

Akio was quickly dumbfounded. The scene of the two girls volleying insults upon one another's car is just that, but he can feel something else. It's not just leveling verbal jabs at one another, this is valid communication. The two women's arguments carry an air of friendly competition, as expected from the fact of the two being fast friends.

"Anyway, Yuka… thanks for maintaining the Roadster," Himeko said softly as the insults die down. "You've done what you can, to hold off until someone special came…"

"What do you mean?" Yuka adamantly exclaimed. "It just happens! Sometimes I have the money to do it, so I did! It's just for the car, not for you!"

"Ever the tsundere," the cancer patient chided gently. "How about her, Akio? Tsundere goth-lolis are all the rage in Akiba, if TV is to be believed… and Chihiro would flip out if she were to wear that kind of dresses…"

"Uh… no thank you," Akio grunted, cutting Himeko short.

"Not going to go out with a poor mechanic, sorry," Yuka snorted.

"Oh you two," Himeko mouthed between giggles. "Anyway… since you have taken the trouble of driving all the way up here, why don't you stay for lunch? We have… er, a few onigiri and bottled tea to spare."

"Is that even a proper diet? Ttaku, think about your body sometimes…" Yuka grumbled. "I brought boxed meals, though I don't know if we're covered. Poor mechanics should just stick to onigiri."

"Oh he'll be fine. He's like The Stig, eating caked oil and drinking gas," Himeko teased, joining Yuka's side for once.

"Himeko-nee, that's a bit…" Akio replied sheepishly. The girls just laughed teasingly.

True to her words, Yuka brought boxed meal sets containing rice and tempura for the duet, plus one for herself. After settling themselves on a picnic blanket Yuka brought, they all enjoyed lunch with the company of each other. Their light talks revolve around Yuka's new pride and joy, the newest model Vivio she nicknamed Vita. Apparently, she won it from a sweepstakes and has been decorating it ever since.

"Well, Yuka… now that we're full, I need to say something…" Himeko gently said as she set down her empty bento box. "We're entering the RoadSpec competition, early next month in Tsukuba."

"Are you out of your mind?" Yuka questioned harshly, almost shrieking. "Cancer patients should just take it easy and wait!"

"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight… Their blind eyes would blaze like meteors, and see clear like day… Rage, rage against the dying of the light," Himeko recited a passage in good-sounding English. "That race will be my final act of defiance, Yuka. I will not go gentle into that good night."

"What is that…?" Yuka snapped back, exasperated. "I don't even…"

"I will fight and claw my way from it… fight as much as these tired bones will take me," Himeko stated with a quiet resolution. "If I do that, then perhaps He will listen when I get there."

"How… how will I say this to… to Chihiro? … To your parents?" Yuka mumbled, seeing that the resolve is already set in stone even before she could do anything to it.

"You need not say anything, old friend," Himeko said gently. "I'm going to tell them myself. Akio, can you set me up?"

"Ayako-basan caught me in the act, Himeko-nee… sorry," Akio sheepishly revealed. "So I guess they already know the part of me restoring the car for racing. I did tell them that you will be delivering the news yourself, though."

"Okay, that's good enough," Himeko said pensively. "I'll have to set a date for that, too… oh, and we forgot to name the team! Aaah, how can I forget something that important?"

"Only you would think that naming a ragtag amateur racing team is more important than letting your parents know what the hell you're going into…" Yuka snarked.

"Ah come on, we hid things from our parents before, once or twice," Himeko dismissed. "C'mon you two, let's think of a good name!"

"Dying Breed," Yuka off-handedly suggested. "That, or Near-Death Experience."

"Lighten up a little, ttaku~" Himeko grunted. "How about you, Akio-chan? Have you a good suggestion?"

"How about… Midnight Racing Team?" Akio suggested.

"Oh, now you're being too optimistic, Akio-chan…" Himeko commented. "I don't think we're in that kind of skill level yet. I was thinking more in the lines of… Mito Speed Stars?"

"Now that name sounds like a racing-themed idol unit," Yuka grumbled. "Let's go with… ah, Bizarro Metalo."

"Wow, that name sounds exotic!" Himeko commented.

"Uh… for some reason I don't like the sound of that. It sounds like the name of a visual-kei rock band," Akio voiced his concern. "How about… Blue Phantom?"

"Uwaaah, that's a cool-sounding name! I liked that!" Himeko chirped.

"That sounds like a seventies American superhero name. It's so campy, rejected," Yuka vetoed the idea. "Besides, no one uses a car with a different color than its team name. Why don't you go with Team Mitonyan, or Team Himechu."

"We do not have moe-betes[24] like you, Yuka. Rejected," Himeko shot the idea down with a deadpan tone. "Now how about… Deigracia?"

"Now you're going all Greek-y. It's like a big red 'I'm a geek and holier-than-thou, kick me' note painted on your car," Yuka muttered.

"Then how about…" Akio suggested just off his mind. "Flandre? That name's a real hit amongst my otaku friends."

"That's… a bit too close to home, silly Akio," Himeko chided.

"Uh… sorry," Akio replied ashamedly, clueless of what mine he had stepped on. "Then, going by my earlier suggestion… how about Akai no Tamashii?"

"Red Spirit… I like the ring of that name," Himeko remarked. "So, what is our majority share-holder's opinion?"

"Eh, any name is good as the other," Yuka grunted in a non-committal tone.

"It's decided, then. From now on, our racing team will be called Red Spirit Racing," Himeko declared proudly. "Let's make a bloody fingerprint declaration to cement this understanding."

"No," Yuka flat-out refused. Akio, meanwhile, stared in shock.

"Gotcha~" Himeko sprung her trap. They all laughed a bit, realizing it to be a joke. But that joke cements the idea like the aforementioned vow; now their agreement has been set in stone.

The rest of the daylight hours went on pretty uneventfully, with Yuka departing just after their little brainstorming session ended. The odd couple then tried a few rounds of speed-driving in the desolate stretch of beach road, if just to refresh Himeko's knowledge on racing. To Akio's surprise, Himeko catches on fairly quickly. It's as if she had raced all her life and is just waiting for her big break.

"Well, I think we should be heading back now," Akio remarked as the sunset draws the curtain for the closing of a day. "Want me to drive?"

"Yes please," Himeko said. "I'm a bit tired. I guess it's the practices."

"You shouldn't push yourself too needlessly, you know," Akio reprimanded as he finished dumping the trash.

Himeko replied with silence as she sat there, eyes wistfully aimed up the sky.

* * *

_(~flashback start~)_

…

_It was a sunny day in __June. The sky spread out above me, draped cloudily in rainy-season white. _

"_Today could be a bit different from usual...__" I muttered in a low tone. __I hadn't met the new patient yet, but as I entered the hospital, I was certainly looking forward to that._

_I __wandered for a few minutes in the office part of the hospital, before __f__in__d__ing__ the doctor__ in charge of my next patient__ in one of the corridors._

"_... __Well... would you really be all right?__" the middle-aged doctor said as he cut into the heart of his doubt._

"_Yes! Please, do let me...__" I pleaded.__The __enthusiasm__ I had shown earlier__ clearly left him not entirely convinced.__Would I be able to cope with the work, given that I was still at college? I suppose that was his __main __concern._

"_Mmm, even so...__" the man contemplated. I'm getting nervous. "__You... do know who the patient is, don't you?__"_

"_... __Of course__.__ That's why I'm volunteering__," I replied. I think t__hat just made the doctor even more reluctant, and me __sounding __even more persistent__ than I really am__.__All I was asking, though, was to be given the job of looking after the new hospice patient._

"_Um, I do have a letter of recommendation from the church...__" __I __mentioned while __hand__ing the doctor__an__ envelope__, my secret weapon__.__The church had nearly as much influence over such special matters as the hospital itself._

"_Well... __Alright, I'm assigning you to this patient," the doctor in charge relented. "Let me take the letter__ to the office for you.__"_

"_Thank__ you __so__ much for the vote of confidence,"__I__ said as I__ bowed deeply and __excus__ed myself._

_There wasn't anything particularly unusual about volunteering to be a helper on the seventh.__I was__ even__ something of a veteran, having already done it three times before, which was __rare__ at my age.__After all, most hospitals would be loath to let a student worker near their hospice, however understaffed it might be.__Hospices were not something most places took lightly._

_But... this is a Christian foundation__, a__nd more so than most; in some regards it was almost more a religious organisation than a medical one._

_And I'm a Catholic..._

_I had been for longer than I could remember, having been baptised as an infant.__ T__hat meant I was, by definition, someone who did good works in the community.__ However,__ today could be a bit different from usual..._

_Today's patient was a child. And not just any child, but a sick child with no known relatives.__Of course, the said child hadn't been born without parents__, b__ut - cruelly - there were families who, faced with a hopelessly sick child, would resort to abandoning it. It wasn't nice to think about, but it happened.__And who else would care for such a child, but the Catholic hospitals?_

_Maybe you could call it their last resort..._

_It was that compassion that kept me in the church.__Fundamentally, I wasn't __even __a particularly devout believer.__I would as happily have been a Baptist or an Anglican, or any other denomination.__I'd merely happened to be baptised into the Catholic church, and to be brought up living next door to one.__For better or for worse, my roots didn't go deep enough for me to make any lifelong commitment.__The only thing I was committed to was that spirit of compassion._

_Today was different._

_It wouldn't be straight, though. __Rather than the seventh, I was going to the fifth.__I was going to meet this new Nello for the first time.__ This… '__Nello__'__, by the way, was hospital jargon, used by us helpers and the nurses.__It meant a lone, terminally ill child.__Presumably__,__ it came from the character in __the__ Dog of Flanders__ story__._

_Doubtless some people will be shocked that we used such a term, but we didn't really give it much thought.__It was already long established by the time I started helping.__ Personally, __I don't think there was any malice in it.__Far from it, __even__. The arrival of a nello was greeted with enthusiasm; doctors, nurses, and helpers alike queued up to volunteer as care__take__rs.__I suppose the fact that this kind of devotion was so prized also came from the Christian nature of the hospital__, a__nd - half respectfully, half derisively - those who cared for nellos were called __"__Aloises__"__._

_In many ways they had more in common with Patrasche__, b__ut __they__ can't go so far as to die with them.__ S__o__,__ we named them after the best-friend Alois instead, and it was that part of Alois that I wanted to play__ today__..._

"_Good m__orning!__" I greeted my Nello as cheerfully as possible._

"_Uh__... morning...__" the little girl replied. I might have startled him by mistake. H__e __just sat there__ in bed, looking back at me.__It was just __past__ noon, and the lunch tray on her lap was already empty.__I was struck by how soft her hair looked._

"_W__ell done, you've eaten it all up already!__" I commended._

"_Yeah...__" the girl mentioned. "__...I don't like broccoli__, too."_

_A few seconds of uneasy silence passed by as the idle talk dried up. I could feel the girl sizing me up. He is a typical young girl, black hair, brownish eyes. A bit on the skinny side of the scale, but not as bad as I thought she would be._

"_Um... who are you...?__" he took the initiative to break the ice._

"_Aha, I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?__" I returned the pleasantries to the kid. "__I'm your new helper.__Her__e's__ my ID.__"_

_It probably didn't mean anything to her, not at her age, but it was still the __typical__ thing__ to do__._

"_It's lovely to meet you__," I sincerely said as I let my ID fell back to its place, hanging from a length of ribbon loop tethering it to my neck._

"_Um, yeah... __sa__me __here__...__" the girl said with uncertainty. __H__is__ words claimed understanding, but her face only showed confusion.__ "__...__Uh__... what's a helper__, exactly__?__"_

"_What indeed__...?__" I said, the same confusion driving my mumble. __That was unexpected.__I had__ expected that s__he'd know everything about this place, but __now I'm quite shocked__ that__ she didn't know that__ much__,__ at least._

"_Is it different from doctors and nurses?__" she probed. God, this felt like a surprise quiz professor Yamamoto liked to throw around._

"_Well…__" I mumbled, hoping to delay the explanation. Honestly, __I didn't know what to say.__ '__It's someone who looks after you…__'__ would be the standard definition__... perhaps I should go with that? __But that wasn't quite the case where this __girl__ was going.__I would be h__is__ helper on the seventh. A__n A__lois to h__er__ Nello._

_The seventh is not somewhere you can generally enter without knowing that it means that all your treatment options have been exhausted.__That your death is imminent and certain.__You won't be admitted until you've understood and accepted that fact.__It follows that many hospitals' hospices don't cater for children.__It was different for nellos. It was different here, and all the more so where the parents had been Catholics._

"_Um, er, excuse me...__"_

"_Er... what is it?" I hastily said. __I must have been standing in silence while I tried to work out how to answer h__im. "__It's... well, kind of like a friend, I suppose."_

"_...a friend? For me?" she replied. I can see that tiny spark forming in his eyes._

"_That's right. So, do just ask if there's anything you want__," __I __said as I __started tidying away her lunch tray._

"_Um... sorry...__" she hesitantly said. What a nice girl, she must've been taught to clean up after herself, I thought._

"_Don't worry, this is something I'm meant to do now__ that__ I'm your friend__," I gently replied._

"_O-okay...__" s__he__ muttered,__ still seemed hesitant. I tried harder._

"_You know what, I'm really happy now," I piped in. "I always wanted to make friends with someone who wasn't my own gender and age."_

"_Me too... I wanted a big sister," the girl softly said. _

"_Oh? Well, it's perfect then, isn't it!__" I replied, sighing internally while __h__o__ld__ing__ out a hand.__ "__You've got one now.__"_

"_Yeah...__" the girl softly intoned, eyes sparkling with joy._

_His__ hand was warm in mine, in that blazing sunlight, surrounded by those cicadas' voices.__It was just another summer's day, just a little while before she entered the hospice.__That was how we became friends._

_That was how Nello met Alois..._

…

_(~flashback end~)_

_

* * *

_

Akio quietly tiptoed his way to the Shinohara family's phone. He might as well phone Shima's so-called trainer tonight. He may be busy in the coming days… or something.

As he waited for the call to patch through, Akio weighed the option of having a cellular phone of his own. So far the young hashiriya relied mainly in public and home phones, because it's easy enough to find one near his usual haunts. Mito, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether since there are no public telephones near the house. He really didn't want to trouble the Shinohara family more than this…

"Hello, this is dr. Toshiya Joushima," the voice across the line said. "To whom am I speaking?"

"Uh… hello, dr. Joushima… I'm an acquaintance of dr. Tatsuya Shima from Tokyo, Akio Asakura," Akio nervously introduced himself.

"I see. It seems that someone from Tokyo had come to actually challenge me, eh?" the doctor across the line mentioned lightly. "Okay then, where would you want to race?"

"It's… actually not that, dr. Joushima…" Akio replied, hoping that the sheepishness in his voice doesn't show over the line. "I want to ask your help on training someone for the upcoming Mazda RoadSpec competition in Tsukuba. Dr. Shima said that you are quite familiar with the lines and whatnots."

"I see, I see… I'm better acquainted with the lines in Mt. Tsukuba's mountain pass, but Tsukuba Circuit is where I did most of my test runs…" Joushima contemplated. "I can do that, but I also have a tight schedule. I can coach… perhaps two times a week, an hour each. Will that be sufficient?"

"Uh… there are several complicating factors, you see…" Akio carefully intoned. "I was thinking if we can all meet here in Mito…"

"Very well. Let's see on my schedule here… is next Saturday okay?" Joushima offered.

"As good as any. The place is… St. Teresa Hospital, seventh floor, ask for Miss Himeko Shinohara's room. If they ask who you are, just say that you're a family friend. We'll meet there," Akio quickly conveyed the details.

"Well wait a second here, young man," the middle-aged doctor interrupted. "If my memory served me right, that place is St. Teresa Hospital's hospice facility, isn't it?"

"Er… yeah," the young man answered the question succinctly, seeing that his secret is busted again. "Miss Himeko Shinohara is the one who needs tutoring, you see… uhh… it's a bit too complicated for an over-the-phone conversation. Can I just trust you to come and hear us out?"

"Very well then… I sure hope you're not planning something reckless for Miss Shinohara's sake. I'll get there at… perhaps four o'clock Friday afternoon, is that acceptable?" Joushima replied.

"Just perfect, sir," Akio thanked the doctor, subconsciously bowing as he said that. "Thank you for your consideration, dr. Joushima."

…

"Man, this is scorching," Akio grunted. The late summer sun shone bright that afternoon, as he aimlessly wandered around the housing complex. After yesterday, there's really no work to be done, be it around the house or Mach Five.

"I wonder what they do in churches like these," Akio mumbled as he approached the church. "I heard they pray in front of a statue of God, and there are no donation boxes… I wonder if I can pray to that god also…?[25]"

"Hello, young man," a kindly voice of a young priest suddenly snaps Akio back to reality. "Are you interested in this church?"

"Oh, er… no, I… was just wandering around, yeah," Akio blabbed.

"I'm Reverend Shirou Kotomine, pleased to meet you, mister…" the priest said amicably, extending his hand offering a handshake.

"Akio, Akio Asakura," the youth said as he shook the hand of the older man. "I'm staying with the Shinohara family for this summer vacation… just across the fence, heheheh."

"I see," the reverend said, smiling serenely. "Come to think about it, their younger daughter Chihiro talks a lot about a boy cousin and her sister."

"I hope good things…" Akio sheepishly grunted.

"So, what brought you to this Abode of God?" the reverend further asked.

"Nothing in particular, really. I'm just curious of churches… been in temples my whole life, you see," the young man half-mumbled, uneasy with the kindly gaze of the priest. "I wonder if it's okay for me to pray here."

"Why of course," Kotomine replied to the final, blurted question. "I think it is well within the right of every human being to pray whenever they felt the need to, wherever they feel the need to."

"Eh? Why?" Akio asked, dumbfounded by the priest. The young man had half-expected the reverend to bar him from entering the church.

"Have you heard God asking why?" The priest said. "Hmm, on second thought, let me tidy up the gardening tools a bit more and open the door first. Won't take long."

"O… oh," Akio grunted.

Akio waited for about five minutes, and finally the church door opens. Kotomine ushered him in, and motioned the younger man to sit on one of the long benches available in the church. Akio complied with the priest's suggestions on sitting, before marveling the stained-glass mosaic windows for a few minutes.

"Um… now what?" the amazed young teen asked the priest, who sat a few yards away across the alley that separates the benches right at the middle.

* * *

**Glossary:**

[21]: Nope, Yuka's car make isn't mentioned in canon. It's only mentioned as a kei-car, so I have to improvise. The illustration in-game suggests a Honda Fit (also known as Honda Jazz in some countries), but Fits only came into production starting from 2001 or so, and its predecessors are nothing like that. I was going to use a Subaru R2 as a shout-out to WMMT, but it (along with Subaru Pleo, R2's predecessor) turns out to be a more recent model, and their initial release year (2003 for R2; 1998 for Pleo) conflicts a bit with the setting, which puts this fic in summer 1997. Finally, I settled for Subaru Vivio (Pleo's predecessor) for its shout-out-y name.

[22]: a shorthand of 'mattaku', roughly equivalent to 'oh man…'

[23]: A person who possesses a driver's license, but rarely drives.

[24]: This is derived from an internet jargon Moebeetus, which is a mashup term from the root words 'moe' (read as 'mo-eh', not 'mouw') and 'diabetes'. Basically it means a fixation to all things cute; hence the 'moe' part, which is a Japanese term approximately equivalent to 'heart-burning cute'.

[25]: Bear in mind that most Japanese people practice Shinto as their religion, and Shinto in itself is a rather polytheistic (worship of many gods) religion. It's not a real stretch to think that an average Japanese person (Akio, in this case) may consider a church/mosque/synagogue to be 'just another temple'. Of course, I may be wrong IRL.

* * *

**A/N**:

Yeah, plenty of shout-out to go by. The flashbacks are lifted with minimal changes from the game text to preserve the storyline there, but they too will eventually evolve on a path of its own. Lastly... whatever anyone might say (or not), I'll see this fanfic to the very end and finish it. I will.


	5. Wings to Fly

DISCLAIMER:

All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki, Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts and flashbacks are in italic. Flashbacks will be noted as such.

* * *

_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Chapter 5: Wings to Fly_

* * *

"Well, do what you came here to do. Pray as much as you like," Kotomine answered, smiling.

"Okay then…" Akio complied as he stood up, faced the crucified form of Jesus, clapped three times, and then joined his hands in silent prayer. After a few minutes of praying, Akio opened his eyes, bowed a few times, and faced the reverend.

"I hope I'm… not doing something insulting or anything," Akio said, rubbing the back of his head.

"No, not at all. Only He can judge you of your rights and wrongs," Kotomine replied, as he held his hand up in a gesture Akio is not quite familiar with. "May the Lord pour out His grace and abundant blessings upon you."

"Uh… thanks. I guess I should be heading back… thanks again, Kotomine-san!" Akio said, before briskly walking to the door.

…

"Morning, Himeko-nee…" Akio greeted as he entered the room. "… er, what are you doing?"

"Oh, this?" Himeko said as she eyed the assorted bath implements and toiletries. "This is Friday, bath day for us in the seventh floor. C'mon in, c'mon in."

"Will you be okay, Himeko?" a middle-aged woman regarded from behind Akio as she eyed Himeko's bath implements.

"Yeah, I'll be just fine Koyama-san," Himeko cheerily replied. "My cousin here can help out if necessary."

"Er… right," Akio blabbed quickly. The notion of adult family members of differing sexes bathing in the same bath is not unknown in Japan; it's just that Akio thought that he is not close enough to Himeko to warrant such a privilege. "I'm around if anything should happen… yeah…"

"Well then, I'll leave you in his care then, Himeko," the middle-aged caretaker replied, a knowing smile adorning her face as she shut the door discretely.

"Awkwaaard," Akio drawled, his eyes fixed to the door.

"I'm fine with it," Himeko cheerily replied. "Come to think about it, why don't you take a bath, too? You smelled rather… manly, too."

"I… really can't say anything about your tendency of naming things as you see fit, Himeko-nee…" Akio grunted.

"Aw come on, cleanliness is good lines, right? It's the number one rule of racing!" Himeko chirped happily, putting the things she needed for her twice-a-week shower into a small ziploc bag. "Besides, the hospital gives seventh floor denizens ample supply of towels. All you have to do is ask the nurses!"

"Yes yes, I'll get in after you," Akio dismissed quickly as he ushered the ill girl into the bathroom. "Happy shower!"

"Oh, phooey," Himeko grunted playfully.

* * *

_(~flashback start~)_

_Some days passed since I've been formally appointed to be the little girl's handler, or her 'Alois'. The cicadas had begun to cry in earnest, creating a loud curtain of noise wherever they went. The transfer to the seventh is yet to be formally declared, but my visits had by now become routine._

" _Good morning!"_

"_Morning..."_

_As every day, she sat up in bed as she returned my greeting. She was still only minimally open with me. There was still a lot of apprehension left in her._

"_Have you had your morning temperature taken yet?" _

"_Yeah... the nurse said it was 36.5 degrees..."_

"_Good, that's all right then."_

_I went about my usual first task, which clearing away her tray. That started the morning's duties… which end there, unless it's bath day for the patient. If no bath is scheduled for the day, it will be free time until lunch is served. Helpers really aren't responsible for much, since all the medical stuff is handled by the doctors and nurses._

_The helper's role is mainly for personal support; taking temperatures and applying band-aids is probably the most 'medical' stuff helpers are allowed to independently do. On the other hand, there aren't many limits to what might be considered `personal support'. Consoling the patient whenever s/he felt sad, laughing together on funny occasions, lending a shoulder to lean on, those kinds of intangible and immeasurable stuff. In some ways, we worked harder than the professional staff. That's why it was we who took the name of Alois._

"_Okay, shall we go to the café?"_

"_Um, but, I've only just eaten..." _

"_Not for food, for ice cream! It's too hot not to."_

"_But..."_

_She was avoiding my eyes, a hint of something else -maybe shame- mixed into her usual reluctant manner._

"_Oh, don't worry, it'll be a present from me."_

_Even with financial concerns thus assuaged, I practically had to drag her down there. The time being midmorning, other customers were few, and we found an empty table easily._

"_Right! You can have whatever you like - just say."_

"_Okay, but..."_

"_I said, you can have whatever you like! There's no need to be so formal!"_

_I held the menu up in front of her, with the blank side of the menu facing me. A light pause ensued as she pored the contents of the menu for a brief while._

"_I guess vanilla'll-"_

"_Vanilla it is, then. I wonder what I should have... hey, there's only one flavour anyway!"_

"_It looks so…"_

"_Ahaha, I suppose that makes the choice easier! Okay, I'll just pop over and get some."_

_I headed for the counter, leaving her to guard the table. She didn't stand out much; there were quite a number of similarly-aged kids in there. Except that the others were all with their parents. It's not exactly common for kids that age to wander down to the café alone, not if they have parents to accompany them._

_She didn't. Of course, she didn't know that. Nobody had told her._

"_Okay, here we are!"_

"_Wow... you got lots…"_

"_Yeah, well, they turned out to be smaller than I thought, so I thought it'd be a bit stingy only to get one, see? So it's two each."_

_Another tide of silence washed against us._

"_What's wrong? Don't you like ice cream?"_

"_N-no... it's just... if Mummy sees me, won't she be cross? She… always said that I can't have ice cream..."_

_She finished her sentence as her eyes avoided mine._

"_D-don't worry, it's okay if I give you it."_

"_... Really?"_

"_Of course! The doctors and nurses won't be cross either."_

"_Oh, okay then."_

_And she grabbed her spoon and, for lack of a better term, attacked it. For obvious reasons, this was probably the first time she'd had the chance since she came here, which must have been quite a strain for a girl her age... So I was a bit surprised when she stopped again after only a couple of mouthfuls._

"_What's wrong...?"_

"_Mummy..."_

"_Oh..."_

_I couldn't think what else to say. Obviously she didn't even suspect the truth. And how could I explain?_

_What was I supposed to say - `Mummy's gone, and Daddy's gone, and now you're going to die all alone'? Oh man, this game would be a lot funnier if it was in print… As if anyone could say that!_

_And yet not only was it the case, but I'd been told that it's really pretty common for a family to disappear, leaving a patient behind. It happens for all kinds of reasons. Financial pressure, emotional pressure... It's easy to pull out labels like' cruel' and 'heartless', but I personally didn't feel that the blame could be laid on the parents alone. What mother is going to abandon her child in hospital, if she can see any other alternative? But caring for a child through long-term illness is such a strain - and what a trite word that seems for such a terrible thing! - that one can imagine why it might become genuinely unbearable._

_Ultimately, I couldn't condemn them; it was just sad that it happened. One more little sadness in this world of suffering._

"_Huh? Are you okay?"_

"_Oh, don't worry about me. But more importantly... shall I give you mine too?"_

"_Ehh? But..." _

"_Now, now, no need to be polite!"_

_I shoved her empty dishes to one side, replacing them with my vanilla-laden cups._

"_Is it nice?" _

"_Yeah... Ehehe, it's yummy!"_

_It's a small sign, but I can see that her shy and worried expression starting to vanish. For the first time, the face she turned towards me was filled with a smile… For nothing more than a cheap vanilla ice cream..._

_(~flashback end~)_

* * *

"So, this tutor of ours will come this evening?" Himeko said as she re-entered the room in her light purple bathrobe.

"That's what he said," Akio replied, looking up from a copy of the rules and regulations for the RoadSpec races. "How about Ji-san and Ba-san? I haven't told them…"

"I phoned them earlier, telling about my decision and our little team. They agreed to hear me out, but I haven't set any time," Himeko said, drying her long hair with a towel. "Ne, ne, how did the man react when you tell him about me?"

"A bit apprehensive, but he's willing to hear us out," Akio summarized his phone conversation with Joushima. "A little wonder, really. I thought he'd dismiss us right off the bat, being a busy surgeon and all."

"Surgeon? What's that had to do with racing?" Himeko asked, puzzled.

"I don't know, too. Maybe he's a hashiriya too… my friend is a hashiriya, and he's a surgeon too," Akio said neutrally. "Drives a black 911 Boxster, and is the fastest thing on Wangan bar Devil Z. maybe they met somewhere and promised to race sometimes, or something."

"Well we just have to prepare to tell him, then," The older girl wondered, plopping comfortably to a chair near the window. "Akio, can you hand me the hairdryer? It's in the bedside drawer."

"Right," Akio complied, bringing a red hairdryer from the open drawer beside the bed. "Where should I plug it?"

"There's a socket right around there…" Himeko pointed to a wall socket not three feet from her chair.

The sound of hair dryer whirring mixed with pages turning filled the room as the minutes pass by. Within each other's reassuring presence, they passed their precious time together.

"Ne, ne, Akio," Himeko piped up. "Have you had a girlfriend?"

"Well… a few. Here and there. Why would you ask?" the young James Dean-ish man said back.

"No particular reason," the woman said pensively. "Tell me about them."

"… I better go shower now," Akio grunted, getting up from the chair.

"Aaa! Akio, that's sneaky!" Himeko wailed as Akio stuck out his tongue, shutting the bathroom door behind him.

…

A knock sounded at Room 717's door at a few minutes past four o'clock. Akio and Himeko both inhaled deeply, steeling themselves for the awaited meeting. Akio had just finished showering, while Himeko is decked in a set of freshly-washed, standard-issue pink hospital pajama. A white band peeks from her small wrist, signifying that she is a patient of the hospice.

"Are you ready, Himeko-nee?" Akio solemnly asked.

"Yeah. I do hope that they will hear us out," Himeko answered, her features composed.

Akio moved to open the door, and was greeted by the presence of two middle-aged men standing in the hallway. One of them is thinner than the other and had wavy short hair, holding a folder filled with documents. The other man is taller and a bit more rotund in appearance, and gives off an aura of hot-blooded manliness.

"Er… dr. Joushima, I presume?" Akio ventured.

"You must be Akio Asakura, then. How do you do," the wavy-haired man said in a typical physician's response, offering a handshake which Akio accepted. "This is a friend of mine, Kozo Hoshino. He is interested on your proposition, as I do."

"How do you do, son," the rotund man said, accepting a handshake offered by Akio.

"Well then, please come in," Akio said a bit groggily as he showed their way in. "Our… racer, is right inside."

The two men nodded knowingly, and entered the room.

"Well gentlemen, welcome to my modest abode," Himeko greeted cheerily, offering both men handshake. "I am Himeko Shinohara, and I seek tutoring from you for the upcoming RoadSpec competition in Tsukuba."

"Well, nice to meet you Miss Shinohara," Toshiya stated politely as he sat on a chair Akio prepared. "I must say you are most suicidally insane indeed."

"Oh trust me sir, when you have passed the limit doctors say you would live, it makes less meaning not to live safely," Himeko replied indignantly as she sat on the hospital bed.

"As a physician… much less an oncologist[26], I would say that it is miracle enough for you to survive for this long," Toshiya countered with a grim tone, gesturing with the folder he held. "I have studied your case through my connections, by the way. Your body has reached its limit, and it's infinitely dangerous to push it any further."

"I will race. With or without your guidance," Himeko firmly stood her ground.

"You do know about the dangers of racing, don't you? Have you prepared yourself for the consequence?" Toshiya shot back, leveling the most intense glare Akio have ever witnessed to Himeko.

"I have, sir," Himeko said solemnly. "I would rather die in a crash on the racetrack than in this room or anywhere else. I. Will. Defy. My. Destiny."

For a moment, the silence crystallized into the hardest single material Akio had ever lived in. Toshiya's intense and calculating stare clashed with Himeko's resolute and fierce gaze. Kozo is scaling the would-be racer, while Akio weighed his options on whether to break the choking silence or not.

"Well said, girl. Well said," Kozo finally broke the silence. "She is made of fine steel, Toshiya."

"I thought so, too," Toshiya said, visibly letting out a breath, revealing that all that has been was a test of character. "I knew from the get-go that she is a determined young woman. Her name and case is already well-known in my circle."

"So this means…" Akio groggily piped.

"Yes, I will lend my expertise in guiding Miss Himeko for the next RoadSpec competition," Toshiya said. "I had also compiled some data regarding your illness to devise a therapy for alleviating pain and improving your physical abilities during practice and race, Miss Shinohara."

"And I will be your financial backer for the race," Kozo added, manly grin adorning his features. "You will need a team to compete properly, you know, and my garage can provide you with that."

"We already had that covered, actually," Himeko said, smiling as she let relief wash upon her frail self. "The team name is Red Spirit Racing, with me as driver, this guy Akio Asakura as mechanic and all-around go-to guy, and Yuka Akishima as financial backer and race queen. We just haven't sealed it with a bloody thumb print."

"Ahahaha!" Kozo heartily laughed as he heard the girl's cheeky declaration. "I like the way you think, girl! Red Spirit Racing it is!"

"I… would like to say that we already had some money," Akio pointed out. "And my friends are raising funds, too. We can pay the supplies for the race…"

"That money would be better spent on therapy, Asakura-kun. I will not lie to you, it will be quite expensive to sustain and improve miss Shinohara's condition during the length of time between now and after the race," Toshiya said as he eyed the young man. "I assume you are Miss Shinohara's boyfriend…?"

"Uh… no. She is not my girlfriend," Akio said flatly. "She is my cousin."

"Ah… I see. Has the parents been notified?" Toshiya replied with practiced neutral tone.

"Not yet, but she intends to," Akio said with a sheepish grin.

"It is imperative that the Mr and Mrs Shinohara be briefed of what their daughter is going to do," Toshiya went on. "I should be present in that event, too, so we should be working on a timetable now. Not to mention getting at least a C-Rank JFA Racing License…"

"Uh… that's covered, too, sir. Himeko-nee already had a Rank A license," Akio pointed out. "Perhaps she should just renew it…?"

"I see. It seemed that she already prepared most of it, didn't she…" Toshiya said as he gazed towards the aforementioned girl, who is happily chatting with Kozo about the Roadster.

"So… how much do we have to pay for your services?" Akio gingerly asked the doctor.

"Nothing," Toshiya assured the wary young man. "You must still pay your medicine bills on your own, though. Both Kozo and I agreed that we will help her as part of my annual charity work."

"Thank you so much… doctor," Akio managed to blurt out before tears overwhelmed him. The youth had thought that the road would be rocky, but he would never entertain the thought that the good doctor would help him this much.

* * *

_(~flashback start~)_

_Some days later, I made my way to her again, among the chirping cicadas, under the fierce sun. Nothing much had changed, even that she'd now been transferred to the seventh._ _So I wasn't really worried about anything except the possibility that she might ask about her parents again. I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle that._

_On the seventh, I met with a nurse on the way to the elevator from the nurse station. She is a longtime employee, having been here before I even started doing volunteer work._

"_Good morning_… _It's hot again today, isn't it?"_ _I exchanged greetings with the senior_ _nurse. I suppose I could call her a_ _friend._

"_Well, how's it going up here? Getting used to it?" she returned my greeting._

"_Yeah - well, 'course, the fifth was private rooms too."_

_It's perhaps worth stating that we weren't talking about me._

"_Have you been doing nights too?"_

"_Well, yeah, I'm used to sleeping on the spare bed, so..."_

"_It can be difficult, can't it, when there's no guardian..."_

_I responded with a non-committal nod._ _I knew what she was getting at with `there's no guardian'.She was hinting that it wasn't that they'd just gone missing, but that they were no longer present in this world. Nobody had told me directly what had happened, but from what I'd heard it had been a_ _horrible_ _accident._ _An accident so horrid and gut-wrenching it made to national news. There are talks that it may be deliberate, but I'd rather not talk about conspiracy theories._

"_Well, do let me know if you need any help."_

"_Thanks, I shall."_

_So I knocked on her door and entered._

"_Morning! How are we today?"_

"_Er, okay, I think."_

_As always, she sat up in bed and looked at me. I sat myself down in the bedside would spend most of the day like that - the sunlight through the window leaving our faces half lit and half in shadow, while she_ _read the piles and piles of motoring magazines I had no idea where she got them from. Besides that, we_ _talkedintermittently about nothing in particular._

"_The flowers are pretty again today..."_

_They were in little vases by the window, splashes of white and gold._

"_Um, the nurse puts them there."_

"_Ah, that's nice."_

_I topped up the water in the vase of yellow gerbera daisies. She watched neutrally_ _for a second before getting back to her magazines._ _It was pretty much what you'd expect to find in a room like this._

… _Except that an outsider would mistakenly assume that they'd been brought by visitors._

_At this hospital - and all the more on this floor - someone always ensured that rooms were decorated, even if there were no relatives to bring flowers. Nurses and helpers alike, we made sure no room was left drab and empty. If we ran out, we'd fetch more from the flowerbeds in the hospital garden; that was one of our duties._

"_Aren't they pretty?"_

"_Yeah - but I like the white ones even more."_

_She pointed to the other vase – a few stalks of_ _lilies_ _of an assortment of colors. It's unusual for visitors to choose something so strongly scented, and we didn't tend to use them either._ _In fact, there really weren't many likely donors. I knew without being told who they'd be from._

"_They're from something called a church."_

"_Yes, I thought they'd have visited you."_

"_They said they'd come again too._

_Probably a priest, or one of the sisters. The prospect seemed to please her. Well, they were nice flowers, but it says something else in the flower languages._ _Warding off unwanted visitors._

_In the circumstances, it was only natural that the church would take an interest. Christian compassion was not reserved for church members alone. In a sense, this place was founded on that principle, yet I wondered if she understood that._ _Even if her parents had been Christians, she herself was unbaptised, and knew no doctrine or catechism._

"_Ooh, by the way...You know Mummy and Daddy...?"_

_I recoiled. My worst fear had just come true._

"_Um, they've gone on a long journey."_

"_Eh...?"_

"_They are preparing for a very important race in Nu… Nu Hebun? That's why they can't visit me._ _I heard it's in ame-… Rainy Rika?"_

_Who on earth had told her that? I only just managed to stop myself from asking. A doctor or a nurse? Even possibly a priest or nun._ _Naah, it has got to be the clergy. The Vatican house more secrets than I can care to count._

_It didn't really matter. Whoever it had been, there was no way I could contradict the lie. While children can believe that lying is simply wrong,simply 'evil', adults don't have that luxury. If this was evil, then I was one of many evildoers. It makes no difference who lied first; all of us who went along with it are equally culpable. Disinterested observers might feel inclined to condemn our actions as hypocrisy. Fine, but first maybe they'd like to suggest a single realistic alternative._ _I, for one, certainly couldn't see any such thing._

"_Will Mummy be back soon?_ _She always brings me home-made puddings!"_

_Silence reigned. I dare not say a word._

"_You can have some too!"_

"_That'll... be nice."_

_That was all I could say before I choked on the I had to force something out. The silent alternative was even worse._

"_T-tell you what!Let's go to the cafe."_

"_But I only just had breakfast."_

"_That won't stop me buying you ice cream, will it?"_

_I had to drag her again._

_Nello and Alois... My role really was closer to that of Patrasche, save only that I couldn't die together with my charge; that's why I was Alois instead. But was I even that? Could I really call myself her friend, if I was keeping that kind of secret from her?_ _And how much longer would I have to keep it a secret? How much longer did she have to be protected from knowing her fate...?_

_(~flashback end~)_

* * *

"I trust you didn't have any difficulty getting here, Reina-san?" Akio said as he handed the girl beside him a bottle of mineral water.

"Of course not!" the girl holding the umbrella replied. "It's the Tsukuba Circuit, anyway. Big enough for a satellite to photograph…"

"Ehehe, yeah," Akio said as he opened his bottle. "She's going to pass any moment now…"

As Akio finished his sentence, a red car lanced through the pit straight, barreling through at its top speed. Reina whistled a low whistle. A marshal then held up a whiteboard written with a sequence of numbers, signaling the lap time the Miata had just booked.

"Hmm, 1:37:798… not bad," Akio commented as he jotted it down on a notebook. "There's a good chance that we will achieve thirty-five in the next practice if Himeko-nee kept her pace…"

"A pretty good time for someone just starting over with their car," Reina commented. "Oh, and regarding the money. I've put it in the account you specified. The grand total is just over three hundred and fifty thousand yen."

"That's a great amount, Reina-san…" Akio pondered as he lets the figure sink in. "Thank you so much for your help, but where did you get that much money?"

"Well, every single people I contacted are surprisingly willing to pitch some in. Crazy as it seems, even our hashiriya friends and the tuners pitched in… some five thousand, and some ten thousand… they piled up, just like that. Even that guy from Green Auto Shop whom I never heard much about, sold his tuned R32 and then donated some for us," the public figure replied gently. "A friend of mine donated the most though. Her mother is a cancer survivor and they are delighted to hear that your racer is setting forth despite of the cancer."

"I see…" Akio mumbled softly, while looking at his digital wristwatch. His brain raced, struggling to find a good tune for the Miata, leaving silence to fill the gap between him and Reina.

"How is she, Akio?" Reina took a stab at restarting the conversation.

"Well enough, I guess," the young tuner said lightly. "Aside from being the racing coach with Hoshino-san, Doctor Joushima prescribed some therapies for her and they are going well enough. We even had Doctor Joushima's wife to supervise her therapy since she is a licensed nurse."

"Aren't those convenient," Reina mumbled. "She's a brave girl, isn't she…"

"She's more courageous than people attempting 320 kilometers per hour on Wangan," Akio intoned. "If I'm in her shoe, I'd be content to roll over and die any minute."

The red car again lanced through the pit straight, followed by the marshal's announcement of its lap time. It's slightly slower than the previous time, but Akio smiled nonetheless. Her lap times have stabilized well. While it is still not enough to win them the championship, things are looking up for the makeshift team.

"Speaking of which, Reina-san…" Akio asked out of curiosity. "Are your auto talkshow going to cover the race?"

"Not specifically, but I'm hired as one of the hosts. I get to sit in the booth with the guest commentators as a presenter-slash-interpreter. That's why I'm here, in fact," Reina proudly mentioned. "I'm going to be commenting with Keiichiro Tsuchiya and Jeremy Larkson! Finally, all those college years doing English essays paid off!"

"… can I go with you?" Akio deadpanned. "You're sitting in with the legends, dammit."

"No, but I'll see if I can get you an autograph," Reina said, grinning.

"Ah, I guess the cooldown lap's over…" Akio mentioned as he glanced to his wristwatch. "So… do you want to meet my racer?"

"That would be charming!" Reina replied enthusiastically. "Meeting a racer who had cancer is not an everyday event, you know… only Lance Armstrong had one, after all!"

* * *

**Glossary**:

[26]: I never knew what Joushima's specific expertise is, so to simplify things I elected oncologist as his specialty. An oncologist is a physician that deals with cancer; if you need a (fictional) example, look no further than dr. James Wilson of House TV series.

* * *

**A/N**: I plod on, knowing that this story is perhaps only read by a handful of readers, if at all. This is my vow, after all.


	6. Depend on You

DISCLAIMER:

All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki, Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts and flashbacks are in italic. Flashbacks will be noted as such.

* * *

_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Chapter 6: Depend on You_

* * *

The duet made their way through the winding staircases from the tribune to the paddocks below. Akio were glancing to his time records, while Reina marveled at the walls and the steps along the way. She was a bit ecstatic; after all, despite her job as an automotive talkshow host, she rarely goes out of her studio and into a real pit like this.

_An unusual pit_, Reina thought as she entered the paddock. The small cubicle is not packed with tires and miscellaneous racing implements like what she usually glimpsed in F1 races; instead, there is a small reclining bed dominating the scene, accompanied by a small coolbox and a drip stand. A kindly middle-aged woman smiled towards her, but in her heart Reina knew that this is not the racer Akio talked about.

"So Himeko-nee, I want you to meet Reina Akikawa-san. She's a TV show host I met her while racing in Tokyo," Akio said, introducing the two women together as the racer stepped out of the car and took off her helmet.

"Hello, I'm Himeko Shinohara," the racer said, offering a hand-shake. "How do you do?"

"Fine, fine… Reina Akikawa," Reina replied, smiling as she shook Himeko's hand. "I must say that I'm pretty impressed, Shinohara-san."

"Oh please, you're being too formal. Himeko is fine. We're not in an interview, you know," Himeko said jovially, while motioning the TV host to sit wherever convenient. "Please have a seat. I must apologize as I must lie down after driving sessions. Conserving my strength and all that…"

"I see…" Reina said gingerly, suddenly reminded that this racer is different than every other racers in Japan.

"Reina-san helped me with the funding, Himeko-nee," Akio helpfully pointed out as Himeko downed a few pills and washed it down with water. "She and our few friends in Tokyo pitched in for our racing team."

"I see… So you're the representative of our share-holders from Tokyo?" the cancer patient said, smiling. "I assure you and the people you represent that every yen you invested is being put to good use. Well, it's either my medicines or the car."

"We expect nothing less from you, Himeko-san," Reina puts in a word of her own to the fray. "I heard that you're improving your lap times?"

"It's small, but yes we're making headway," the racer said gingerly. "I've improved around half a minute since I first drove this circuit."

"Which was a mere week ago," Akio pointed out. "Quite an achievement, even our trainer was impressed."

"That's really good! Now I feel that you have a crack of winning this!" the talkshow host said in elation. A few seconds pass as they laughed off Reina's comment.

"But really, Himeko-san…" Reina said as the laughter died down. "I'm quite intrigued. From what I had dug up, you seem to be a typical example of a cancer patient in a hospice, if a little young."

"Well, I used to be that way until a divine inspiration struck," Himeko half-whispered in a conspiratorial tone. "Since then, I've been plotting for my return… putting my pawns… pulling favors… Waiting for the right alignment of fates to present itself."

"That's what she always said…" Akio wryly added.

"I'm sure that you have your reasons, Himeko-san," Reina said softly, afraid of touching a hidden sore nerve. "But we all hope for the best. Just racing in this event is already a magnificent achievement for a person like you."

"Thank you," Himeko said, smiling.

* * *

_… (~flashback start~) …_

* * *

_On another occasion, a little later, we went out together into the hospital garden.__ For some reason, she liked going out here, to the garden overlooking the parking lot. We would be watching cars come and go, she sometimes naming a car I have never known in my longer life-span. It's a little amazing how a child that age would have a near-encyclopedic knowledge about cars and its general specs._

"_Phew, it's hot today...__"_

"_Should we go back inside?__ That white Red Suns Infini isn't here today."_

"_Oh no, it__'s fine__ like this.__"_

_She looked up at me happily. I was touched at how close we seemed to be getting.__It perhaps goes without saying that there really wasn't anyone else her age on the seventh; the rest were mostly elderly.__So I was doing my best to be there for her as much as possible._

"_Huh? Why're there no flowers here?__"_

_She was looking at the flowerbed in front of us.__For the most part it was full of colourful flowers and greenery, but just one place it was completely bare._

"_Did they all die?__"_

"_Mmm, well, I suppose you could say that...__"_

"_Oh... how sad.__"_

_Her face fell slightly__, b__ut it couldn't be helped. That part of the bed was used for spring flowers. By this time of year they'd finished flowering; of course they'd wither._

"_But don't worry, we'll be planting some more next month.__It'll be pretty again in no time.__"_

"_That's okay then.__"_

_And she cheered up__. __Looking at her, I found myself remembering a verse._

"_This is a wilderness... so it's going to be full of flowers one day.__"_

"_Huh?__"_

"_It says so in Isaiah.__"_

_I explained about those famous words from the start of Isaiah 35 – __"L__et the wilderness and the dry lands exult, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom.''_

"_Then it says, __'__Let it bring forth flowers like the jonquil, let it rejoice and sing for joy.__'"_

"_Um, why? What's that mean?__"_

"_Well, that you shouldn't be sad just because there's nothing there.__Basically__…__ I suppose it means that joy can be born precisely because there's nothing in the way__…"_

"_Ooh, you're clever!__"_

"_Ahaha, not really.__"_

_I moved quickly to dispel that illusion._

"_I've just learnt some verses from the Bible...__It's not like I could come up with something like that by myself.__"_

"_Okay, but then you must still know a lot.__"_

"_Mmm? Well, I suppose I've learnt quite a _lot_ of verses...__"_

"_...are you a doctor?__"_

"_Ahaha, a doctor...?__Not even nearly... but it's nice to think I might be.__"_

"_Well, do you know what that is?__"_

_She pointed to the palm tree by the main entrance._

"_I think it's a pineapple tree!__"_

"_Pineapple...?__"_

"_Yep! A really big one.__"_

_I had to admit that it __did look__ like one..._

"_I wonder why nobody's eating it?__"_

_Silence struck for that one instant. __There wasn't a hint of playfulness in her voice. She was serious.__I agonised for a moment whether to correct her or affirm her._

"_Well done, you noticed!__Yes, that's a pineapple tree.__"_

"_Thought so...__"_

"_But you mustn't tell anyone, okay?__"_

"_Why not?__"_

"_Because if people knew, they'd eat it all up!__So we're keeping this a secret till it's grown really big.__"_

"_Ooh... you really are clever!__" _

"_And the other thing I know about is this sort of thing...__"_

"_Ooh, what?__"_

_She looked up at me with eager eyes.__ I__ slipped my rosary from my pocket..._

"_May the Lord pour out His grace and abundant blessings upon you.__"_

_Hands together, eyes closed, I said a blessing over her._

"_That's it.__"_

"_What was it? Was it a magic spell?__"_

"_A spell? No, not exactly.__"_

_The blessing of a saint or an archbishop might qualify as magic, but I wasn't even a priest.__My words didn't even comprise a sacrament. They were just a prayer._

"_What was it then? A charm?__"_

"_Something like that, I suppose.__"_

_Possibly even just comforting words.__Did it really count as a prayer if I didn't say it hoping for a noticeable effect?_

"_But, well, I suppose you can call it magic if you like.__"_

"_Okay.__"_

_And she smiled for me again._

_I wasn't much of an Alois.__Up to that point, I hadn't been able to think of anything better than to buy her ice cream.__So it was nice to have found something else I could do for her..._

* * *

_… (~flashback end~) …_

* * *

"Hello, Nee-chan," a small voice greeted the cancer patient just stepping into her rented room. "Mom, Dad, and Father Kotomine sent their regards…"

"Chihiro?" Himeko said, a bit of surprise evident in her tone. "What a surprise! How did you get in?"

"The landlord helped me," Chihiro professed, showing a small multipurpose thermos pot on the table. "Mom made mushroom soup for you and Akio-kun."

"Wow, thanks," Himeko said as she walked to the kitchen cupboard. "I'll get some bowls and spoons."

"I'll do it, Nee-chan," Chihiro said, standing up. "You must conserve your strength…"

"It's called sacred hospitality, sis," Himeko chided gently. "Besides, I am by no means crippled… better than ever, even. Dr. Joushima's therapies do cover muscle mass improvement, as I've been getting some steroids to strengthen my muscles and add a bit to their volume."

"But steroids are bad!" Chihiro meekly objected. "They make you prone to rages and…"

"In excessive amounts, yes it does. I done my homework, little sister," Himeko cut Chihiro short as the older female pulled out some melamine bowls and matching spoons from the cupboard. "The concentration of the synthetic hormones in my injections is nowhere near that, and is strictly controlled. Besides, Dr. Joushima also said that he will terminate that part of the therapy about a week before race day. The doping tests in this race don't track my steroid cocktail, and the cocktail itself is legal for a cancer patient like me… but you can never be too safe."

"Nee-chan, can I ask you something…?" Chihiro asked.

"Go ahead," the older sibling said, sitting near the low table.

"You… never said why you want to race. Now, of all times…" the younger sibling said. "Why? Why racing?"

"You knew my last and final… Nello, no…?" Himeko said wistfully, stirring the soup slightly with a ladle.

"Yes… that little girl…" Chihiro said, serving some to a bowl. "I heard your story a lot from Torako-san…"

"That gossiping old auntie… oh, thanks. Yum, I have almost forgotten this aroma," Himeko said as she received the bowl from Chihiro. "We… no, I… kind of came across a conclusion."

"A conclusion?" Chihiro said, leaning her head forward in confusion.

"Yeah…" Himeko replied after she swallowed a bite of maitake mushrooms. "That He won't do anything unless we made something big enough for Him, or at least His aides, to flinch of."

"B-but… that's absurd!" Chihiro raised her voice. "Th- the grace of God… it extends to all-"

"I didn't contradict that," Himeko said, hoping to becalm her sister. "He did a lot for each and every one of us, that much is true. Yet, if you consider how many people are there in this small rock… and other small rocks across the universe… He's a busy being. We must make it worth his while."

"H-… how can you come to that conclusion…?" Chihiro all but sobbed out. Not only has she fear losing a dear sister emotionally, now she has reason to fear that said older sister has abandoned their faith.

"I once read from a friend's book," Himeko said, sighing as she finished a piece of mushroom. "It said 'God does not change the fate of a people unless they work on it'… or something like that. Perhaps this influenced me… if in a roundabout way, yeah."

"But s-still…" Chihiro goes on. "Wouldn't it be better to just… climb Mount Fuji, maybe?"

"Well, climbing it should still be easy. After all, cars can go all the way to the fifth station. That's about three-fourths the way," Himeko countered. "After that, there are those paths and railings all the way to the top. Piece of cake, I say. I need something more… extreme."

A few moments of silence reigned across them, punctuated by a weak sniffle.

"Don't worry… I'll be okay," Himeko finally took initiative. She walked up across the table and laid a comforting hug on her sister. "The Lord never abandons his people, even if they forgot Him."

"B-but… your body…" Chihiro sobbed out.

"It will last," Himeko said in a tender tone. "After all, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. The cancer hasn't killed me yet so…"

"I'm home!" a boyish voice called out from the entrance. "Eeh, do we have guests?"

"Welcome home, Akio," the older girl greeted. "Chihiro came by, she brought delicious homemade mushroom soup."

"Gee, thanks Chihiro-san!" Akio said, putting away some vegetable juice and packed bentou in the fridge for later consumption.

"Oh, I almost forgot…" the once-sobbing girl said as she wiped her tears with a handkerchief. "Asakura-jisan and Asakura-basan had obtained a leave permit from your school. It should be good for a month. They will try to attend the race, too."

"Keyword 'try to'," Akio remarked with a slight acerbic tone. "That's good for them I guess."

"Have a little faith, Akio," Himeko admonished. "They're your parents. Of course they will try their best for you."

* * *

_… (~flashback start~) …_

* * *

_I knocked and entered__ the room._

"_Well, have you finished?__"_

"_Um, yes...__"_

"_No you haven't! What's all this broccoli?__"_

"_I... don't like it...__"_

"_Oh well, can't be helped.__"_

_She'd always forced it down before, but of late she'd started to be more picky in what she ate.__Not, I thought, because her condition was affecting her appetite, but simply because she'd got to know me and learnt what she could get away with.__It was __a bit perplexing, but still __gratifying to be thought of as a friend._

"_Okey-dokey, __it's __time for your temperature check then.__I'll take it from your mouth if you promise not to bite.__"_

"_Yep.__"_

_She held it in her mouth, smiling, her face half lit by the light from the narrow window, while I smiled back at her from the bedside chair._

"_Ooh, hy phe way...__"_

"_Don't talk! It's dangerous.__"_

"_Howwy.__"_

_Moments later the thermometer beeped, and I retrieved it and read off the number._

"_...what is it?__"_

"_3__6.5__ Celsius… it's the__ same as usual.__"_

"_Can we go again today, then?__"_

"_Where? The garden, or for ice cream?__"_

"_Um... dunno...__"_

_It had become routine to do one or the other whenever her temperature was normal. I'd got official permission__ from her physician__.__ He thought that it's good, too._

"_Oh, yeah...__What I was going to say is, a lady stranger tried to talk to me!__"_

"_A stranger? When?__"_

"_Um, last night?_

_Who? I __ask__ed__ nobody in particular__. There weren't many people allowed up here…__ only p__atients, visiting relatives, medical staff,__ plus__ us helpers.__That was about it, apart from the rare pastoral visits from priests and nuns._

"_Was she a visitor?__"_

"_No, she was wearing pyjamas, so I think she lives here too.__"_

_That was a little odd.__Oh, it's not unheard-of for patients to socialise. You even get people meeting in hospital and ending up close friends or business partners…__ b__ut not on the seventh.__Few saw much point in making friends when either party could die at any moment._

"_What did she say?__"_

"_She asked me how many times it is.__"_

"_How many times?__"_

"_Yeah, she said 'cos if it's the first she's got to tell me something.__"_

"_And what did you say?__"_

"_I said I didn't understand, and then she like went away again.__"_

_What had all that been about?__Actually... I wondered.__There were rumours that patients on the seventh had secrets, `rules', that they passed down between themselves.__I hadn't believed them. The last time I'd helped up here, I'd asked my patient, and they'd denied it.__And yet I wondered. If there was any truth in it, what sort of secrets could those be?_

"_Hey...__"_

"_Er, um, __sorry…" _

_I'__ve__ gone __to La-la Land __again._

"_Well, shall we go outside today__? __Look, for once it's not such a hot day.__"_

"_Mmm, but I want ice cream too...__"_

"_Why don't we have ice cream outside, then?__"_

_It was cool, but only as__ cool as__ midsummer goes. There was __some__ breeze, but the sun was no less strong.__So I left her on a shady bench, and hurried to __a__ nearby shop._

"_Phew... here you are...__"_

_I arrived back__,__ panting__ like a dog on a hot day like this__._

"_You're all sweaty!__"_

"_It's hot__, duh__...__"_

_I was dripping. I found myself fanning myself with my skirt. Who wouldn't, after sprinting through such heat?_

"_Here, see, it hasn't melted yet!__"_

"_Thanks...__But what about you?__"_

"_Ufufu, don't you worry about that!__"_

_Her concern was prompted by the fact that I was only holding one thing: a 60-yen ice lolly in a pouch.__Now I tore it open and revealed the contents to her._

"_Ta-dah!__"_

"_Ooh! It's a double one!__"_

"_Now-__"_

_It was indeed a double bar, with two sticks._

"_There, one each.__"_

"_Ahaha, right!__"_

_We sat eating together under the sunny sky._

"_Ice lollies always taste better when it's hot, don't they?__"_

"_Ye__s__h... they melt faster too though.__"_

_We ate on__, she occasionally marveling about vehicles coming in and out of the parking lot in front of us. It's lower than the bench we sat on, so we have a good vantage point. She scans the lot for any interesting make, and then rattled the general details to me. I swear, her parents must be devoted car lovers bordering on otaku obsession. No, make it a full-blown OCD otaku obsession._

_But cars are not the only interesting sights here. __Around us__,__ the flowerbeds were in full bloom with pansies and gerbera daisies.__There would be life even in that bare patch, though not visible to us yet._

"_Mm, maybe it'd be nice if you did that thing again...?__"_

"_If you like. Hold my lolly, then.__"_

"_Okay.__"_

_She took it in her free hand - the other held her own.__I, meanwhile, drew my rosary from my pocket, and quietly put my hands together._

"_...and forgive us our trespasses...__...as we forgive those who trespass against us...__"_

_I just recited the Our Father - the Lord's Prayer.__I doubt she particularly cared which bit of the rite she got.__It was enough that I was thinking of her, and that she was pleased by that._

"_Amen. And there you are.__"_

"_Thank you!__"_

"_Don't - it's not like I did some kind of amazing magic...__"_

_After all, since I was just a layperson, I couldn't really do much for other people. I couldn't even come up with my own words._

"_Who made up the words?__"_

"_Why, Our Lord himself, of course.__"_

"_So have other people done it too?__"_

"_Yeah, lots of them - all the popes, and all the great saints...__"_

"_Wow, all that many, and you know about them all?__"_

_I answered her admiration with a nod.__Obviously I didn't __**know**__ them all, but I do think I'd read quite a lot about that kind of thing.__ Living beside a church and all that._

"_Hey, tell you what... would you like to keep this?__"_

_I took out the rosary again._

"_Ehh, can I? Is that all right?__"_

"_Of course! It's not like I haven't got another.__And if we both have them then we can do it together next time.__"_

"_Do it... you mean magic? I can too?__"_

"_Ahaha, well, I'm really not sure you can call it __'__magic__'__...__"_

_She was fundamentally different from most hospice patients, who'd spend periods at home when their conditions permitted.__That wasn't possible because, of course, she didn't have a home.__That's why she was always here, and why I was always at her side._

_It was already the second month since I'd met my Nello.__It was about the stage when__she'd have been heading home for a while... had she been a regular patient__._

* * *

_… (~flashback end~) …_

* * *

"You're stellar, kid!" Kozo greeted Himeko as she pulled in to the paddock with her Roadster. "One minute and ten point three eight six seconds! Some guys would kill for lap times like that!"

"Thanks, Hoshino-kaichou," Himeko playfully said as she shed her helmet. "So, do I have a chance to nail it now?"

"Still quite a long shot, but the chance is there," Joushima commented. "Do you feel bad? Nauseous, faint, dizzy, or otherwise?"

"No, doctor. I feel fine," Himeko said as she stepped out of her car.

"Good then. Let's take it easy from now until the race," the doctor said. "I think Asakura-kun and Kozo will be plenty well-prepared to tackle the technical meeting. You'll be staying home until qualifications day."

"Aw… can't I go and hit on cute racer boys there?" the racer pouted.

"Her fire burns bright still, Jou-chan," Kozo guffawed. "I say a little flirt will do no harm!"

"You'll be better off resting," Toshiya countered. "Besides, you can hit boys all you want after you won the trophy."

"One more motivation to win it! Yosh!" Himeko spiritedly replied.

"You can live for another year with this kind of mindset, I think!" Kozo said, patting the young woman's shoulder.

…

On the grandstands, three young men sat leisurely as they witnessed the record time Himeko has set for herself today. Akio was one of them, marveling as he witnessed Himeko's time improved even more. The other two was Akio's friend and employer.

"She sure is fast," the tanned, afro-haired man remarked. "With the right machine and tune, she can and will beat you in Wangan."

"That, I can't argue with. Thank goodness she's a licensed racer," Akio replied. "I trust the drive here in Devil didn't give you any hardships, Ko-san?"

"Not really," the man called Ko-san replied. "I refrained from using the fourth gear, since all hell will break loose if I do."

"Yeah, we drive real carefully. Never broke 120 in the speedway, even," Ma added. "That machine is just too terrifying."

"Where did you park it, then?" Akio asked. "Happy as I am with reuniting with Devil, I haven't got any real use for it since I'm driving for Himeko-nee at the moment."

"I stored it at my friend's garage for a while. Dude's happy to oblige, owed me some favors from awhile back… oh yeah, the place's address is at the license holder," Ko-san said, while handing over Devil Z's keys to Akio. "Both of us also stayed there for the time being."

"Cool!" Akio replied. "Will you two be watching race day?"

"Are you kidding, man?" Ma answered the question. "Of course we will! Ko-nii said that it's a good opportunity to see how racing tuners work."

* * *

_… (~flashback start~) …_

* * *

_*__Splash__*_

"_W-wah!__"_

"_He__y, keep still!__"_

"_I__ can't help it, that tickles!__"_

_The bathroom on the seventh. This was the second bath day of the week._

"_H-hey! Now I'm all wet too!__"_

"_Sorry-!__"_

"_Ahaha, don't worry, I can just have a shower too.__"_

_The bathroom was larger than in most houses, but not by much. It was a squeeze to get two in the bath._

"_Have you finished yet?__"_

"_Not quite. I'll rinse it out in a moment.__"_

"_Ri-ight...__"_

_She was sitting there with her eyes screwed shut, waiting for me to finish washing her hair.__We both knew the routine by now._

"_Right, next up is the Himeko Hair Salon!__"_

_I cut a hole in a bin liner, slipped it over her head, got her to sit down in front of me, and snipped away.__When the weather permitted we did this on the roof, but the wind was rarely light enough, so this mostly happened in her room._

_We helpers had to be flexible.__Gardening and cleaning weren't the half of it; when necessary we had to be hairdressers too._

"_How's that? I thought I'd try to tidy your fringe up a bit too.__"_

"_Um, it's a little weird... maybe...__"_

"_Oh? Don't you like it straight?__"_

"_Yes, but it's a bit, um, short...__"_

"_Oh, come on, isn't it cute! Just like a little girl __who __should have it.__"_

"_Um... it feels embarrassing...__"_

_Her hair was still damp, and the minty scent of her shampoo filled the room.__She sat sulking in the bin liner, in the chair I normally occupied.__The hair salon consisted of three sheets of newspaper on the floor, and a couple of hand mirrors..._

* * *

_… (~flashback end~) …_

* * *

"You seem quite ecstatic, Akio," Himeko remarked as Akio took her home from Kozo's garage with the Roadster. The convertible canvas roof has been replaced with a new carbon fiber one to conceal and reinforce the rollcage, much to Himeko's dismay.

"Yeah… oh, and my boss just arrived from Tokyo… even brought Devil Z with him," the lad replied, smiling wide. "He said that it will probably simpler to bring it here instead of waiting for me to fetch it after I got back to Tokyo. He said he'll be watching the race, too."

"Now you have to take me on a spin with it!" Himeko demanded as he playfully punched Akio's shoulder. "I'm dying to know!"

"You're dying period, Himeko-nee. I'll take you after the race," Akio playfully quipped. "I'm interested on checking out Tsukuba Pass, too. The only mountain pass I've known is Hakone, and even then it's not a true mountain pass… it's a highway on the mountains."

"That's a promise, you hear?" Himeko asked.

"Sure sure," Akio replied. "We're racing in five days' time…"

"Yeah… imagine the look on their faces when they know they've been beaten by a girl," Himeko chuckled.

"Well, we need to beat them first you know," Akio said. "Hoshino-kaichou has been reviewing some footage from earlier races, and he said that the team will be facing some serious opposition…"

"Have a little faith on me, sheesh," Himeko grunted. "If I can go this fast by myself, imagine how fast I'll be while being chased…"

"Yeah, I know…" the young man replied. "We'll win this, Himeko-nee."

"I have no intention to lose," Himeko concluded with a smile.

* * *

**A/N:**

Well, the sixth chapter is here. It looks like lots of flashback padding, eh? Yeah… however, there should be less of them from now on since we're entering the tourney, baby! Oh, and thank you Alice, wherever and whoever you are. Almost exactly a year after my friend reviewed (I sort of pushed her into it), you came and reviewed… your short review is proof enough that someone, somewhere out there, is reading this. Thank you so much for that little bit of spirit you imparted upon this wilted flower.


	7. Wake Me Up

DISCLAIMER:

All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki, Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts and flashbacks are in italic. Flashbacks will be noted as such.

* * *

_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Chapter 7: Wake Me Up…_

* * *

The wait in the conference room holding the pre-race meeting for the RoadSpec Race on Tsukuba has dragged on for quite a long time, but Red Star Racing Team's representatives have just arrived. The buzz in the room was quite incessant. Eyeballing the room, Akio predicted around forty to fifty teams' worth of people are present in the technical meeting.

"Wow, there are a lot of people here, Hoshino-kaichou," Akio commented as he entered the room a step behind Kozo.

"It's an amateur event… an event that requires rather low amounts of tuning, even," the older man replied. "Naturally, anyone with a decently-maintained Roadster, some capital to spare, and a fresh set of racing tires will enter."

"Hey! If it isn't Kozo Hoshino!" a man greeted Kozo, and they shake hands. "Finally sending a representative to the racing scene? Or are you staging a comeback?"

"Ah no, I'm way too old for these kind of things," Kozo heartily replied. "I'm here as a favor for this here young man."

"Really? Hmm, I see you made a nice pick on the youngster, Hoshino. He had that racer's spark inside his eyes," the man said, his eyes scaling Akio. "How do you do, son? I'm Tatsuhisa Todo, owner, manager, and head mechanic of Todo School of Racing."

"Akio Asakura, nice to meet you sir," Akio groggily said as he shook the old man's hand.

"So I heard you opened a racing school… team of sorts, Todo?" Kozo took back the conversation.

"Yeah. I aim to get championships all over Japan, across classes," Todo said as he throws his gaze around. "If things go according to plan, we'll send two of our best racers to JTCC next season under our own banner. What are you planning?"

"Oh, nothing much," Kozo said with a smile. "I'm just doing the usual things… dealing, touge[b] once in a while… usual old men pleasures."

"Still one of the reigning kings of Tsukuba mountain pass, if my fresh recruits Ninomiya and Sakai were to be believed," Todo let out a detail Akio only learned recently.

"Who did you bring here, Todo?" Kozo again brought the conversation back on track.

"He went to the toilet just now…" Todo replied, scanning the entrance. "Oh, that's him. Tomoyuki Tachi. I have a good faith on his skills, honed in Happogahara pass. Judging from the other contenders in the Stock class, this will be a walk in the park."

"Bloody difficult turns there, I hate that cramped road. Thrive there, you can thrive anywhere else," Kozo spat out. "I guess our racer would have a difficult time with him."

"Oh, I'm sure young Asakura-kun here will put up a decent fight. Aren't you, son?" Todo said, patting Akio's shoulder.

"I'm… just a support mechanic, sir," Akio corrected the older man.

"You are? This poor old man must get his eyes checked, then," Todo remarked. "I could have sworn that I see a seasoned racer in you, son!"

"Yeah. The public will be stunned by our ace in the hole, but we decided to keep her for now. Sudden stomach flu got the better of her, but Jou-chan got it all under control," Kozo added, smirking. Akio sheepishly smiled, knowing that Todo's initial assessment of him was actually a bullseye.

"Really? Good thing God Hand is a doctor, then…" Todo exclaimed, taken by surprise. "Not much lady drivers this time around, you know. Only that Homura girl from Team Mitaki returned to race again… coming in strong, too. A cut under Tachi-kun's pace, but down on the track… we'll never knew."

"Hey chief," the young man referred to as Tomoyuki Tachi joined the conversation. "Sorry I got so long. A friend of mine is also entering the race, we chatted a bit."

"More competition, I say! Is he any good?" Todo replied.

"He's a new blood from Tokyo. Probably worth some competition… we'll never knew," Tomoyuki said. "Ah, I'm sorry for barging in. I'm Tomoyuki Tachi."

"Kozo Hoshino," Kozo said as he shook Tomoyuki's proffered hand. "This is Akio Asakura, one of my mechanics."

"Really? You look so young, just off high school I presume?" Tomoyuki said as he shook Akio's hand.

"Naah, haven't graduated yet. I have to repeat a year, worked too much at the garage for extra cash," Akio replied, a bit sheepish.

"Lucky you, you get to experience an extra year of high school…" Tomoyuki quipped.

* * *

_… (~flashback start~) …_

* * *

_A few days later__, __as the middle of August approached__,__ she was still in her room. I was with her as usual__, taking her temperature. I waited for a few minutes before hearing t__he__ unmistakable__ thermometer bee__p._

"_Okay, let me see it.__"_

"_Wai__i-ight...__"_

_I extracted it from her mouth and read off the number._

"_What's it say?__"_

"_3__6.2 - I suppose that's okay.__"_

"_Then... can we have ice creams outside again?__" _

"_No, I've got something different planned for today.__"_

"_...what?__"_

_First things first.__I opened the paper bag I'd brought. One of today's objectives was right here inside it._

"_What's that?__"_

"_I brought you some new clothes!__"_

"_Eh...? I've got enough p__a__jamas...__"_

"_Aha, but this isn't p__a__jamas!__"_

_I drew it out slowly, to add a bit of suspense.__It had cost __a hefty chunk__ of__ the rest of__ my monthly __pay__, and taken more than two hours __of deliberation __to choose.__ Not to mention I still have to work on my newly-acquired NA Roadster… this kid's enthusiasm for cars is rubbing off on me, I swear._

"_Ta-dah!__"_

"_Ooh, it's a dress!__"_

"_Well? Like it?__"_

"_Yep!__"_

_She nodded away happily.__It was a summer__-__y __little__ thing__,__ with a sunflower motif__ over a sea-blue base color__.__ The fabric is light, and the cut is quite airy. The brand was Muumuu or something like that. I just kind of grabbed the most cost-friendly amongst the vast selection, and it's a little miracle that it was just like what I envisioned. Really, Yuka is better at these kinds of thing…_

"_Right, get this on, then we'd better get going.__"_

"_Going... are we going outside?__"_

"_We're going to __my garage__.__"_

_I started undoing her pyjama buttons. She'd said several times that she'd like to go.__To be honest, __nobody__ would mind you showing up in p__a__jamas...__ it's just a little family garage, after all. __But it seems a waste not to dress nicely.__Thanks ever so__ to this summer sunshine__!_

_We set out under the baking sun, through the clamour of cicadas.__It was the first time I'd taken her out of the hospital, and I was taking her as far as I could.__As far as anyone could, however much she may have wanted to go further.__The __garage__ was__ just__ about the only place that was close enough for her to visit...__ the church is an alternative, though I must time the arrival not to coincide with Father Kotomine shopping for garden supplies._

_We arrived in no time, and I led her through those doors I knew so well._

"_There's nobody here...__"_

"_There never is__, usually__.__ There were no more people interested in cars in the family, after all.__'__"_

_She was looking slightly __ecstatic__. It was quite possibly the first time she'd been in __such a setting again__, even at her age.__ I did a little background check on her, and it turns out that her mother and father was in a team of semi-pro racers before a not-so-stellar season forced them out into settling down and opening a garage. They still tuned race-worthy cars from what i had heard though.  
_

"_...__I__s __that a NA Roadster…?"_

"_Yeah. My NA Roadster. Cool, isn't it? I kind of just bought it though, Pops said this is a raw deal…"_

"_It's… rusty."_

"_Ooh, I see… is it bad, Miss Mechanic?"_

"_Ehehe, I don't know really. Daddy used to cuss at rusty cars, though…"_

"_Then maybe it is indeed bad… as expected, Miss Mechanic! Your mom and dad taught you well!"_

_Together we spent a part of the day in the garage, milling about over our little treasure. For a kid of barely nine summers, she was a trove of knowledge. She even pointed out that I had installed a series of new brake tubing wrong._

_Spending time like this, one would seriously consider why The Old Man Upstairs dispensed a curse of such magnitude upon her. She must've been the jewel of her kin, a talented successor of the family business. Why would He take it away? Is He unjust? Or is this some kind of justice we mortals cannot even begin to fathom?_

_But questioning His logic would be fruitless. The best thing I can do is offer a prayer… t__hat she might be happy__. __I __prayed… nay, __begged__… Him,__ that even if her fate was sealed, she might accept it without regrets._

_And for myself, I asked for forgiveness.__For all the truths I was hiding from her..._

"_Phew...__"_

"_Are y__ou done__ evaluating my work, Miss Mechanic__?__"_

"_Yep.__"_

"_We'd better be getting back. I can bring you again any time you like.__ I can even take you to the church for a blessing next time, if Father Kotomine is present."_

"_Thanks!__"_

_Then, as I turned to lead her out-_

"_Um, wait...__"_

"_What is it?__"_

"_May the Lord pour His blessings and grace on you.__"_

_Needless to say, I was dumbstruck._

"_Teehee, I did the magic on you!__"_

_She was all smiles, with not a trace of worry in her innocent face.__I didn't for a moment believe she understood what that blessing meant.__But that just made me appreciate the sentiment all the more._

_And made it all the harder for me. I, who could do no more for her than buy her ice creams.__I, who had used half of my prayer to beg for my own forgiveness..._

* * *

_… (~flashback end~) …_

* * *

At that precise moment, the JFA officials entered the conference room, and the meeting kicks off. Akio committed every bit of his attention to the officials' explanation, and even jotted some down into his small pocket book. He wants to be able to explain the technicalities and rules to Himeko as best and as clearly as he can. He is also a bit surprised that the specification for the race is still above their current tune for Himeko's Roadster. _This kind of specs can cut a second or two from our time…_ Akio thought.

"I see your racer isn't here," Tomoyuki said as Kozo got up to draw a lot for race numbers. "What happened?"

"Well, we got a dispensation for her… a bit of a last-minute stomach flu, but she should be fine on qualification day," Akio lied. Joushima has arranged with the race organizers so that Himeko would be dispensed from non-raceday technical meetings and her condition kept secret.

"Hoo, a racer girl you say? Nice. I haven't seen much of women racers, there should be more of them!" Tomoyuki joked.

"I think Todo-san mentioned a Homura girl racing again…" Akio said unsurely.

"Oh, that's Akemi Homura from the Mitaki team," the older racer said. "She raced Stock since… hm, the Nishi-Nihon race if I'm not mistaken. Very talented, but still a bit rough around the edges… she'll be a terrifying one if she had the right training."

"Is that her?" Akio asked, noting that a long-haired girl in her twenties drew the number 313 for her race number.

"Yeah. She's quite the looker, too. Plus that cool and calm demeanor… the racers and younger mechanics here had been making a betting pool on which she'll end up dating," the older racer said. "Hey, my friend got the triple-one! Gaah, I was aiming for that!"

"Hmmm… his name is Yuji Kishida, was it?" Akio asked, looking at the racer just retreating back from the stage. "Is he any good?"

"He should be, his half-brother Kazuhiko Yamamoto is a renowned tuner and sometime racer himself. He said he's been practicing in Wangan too," the older man said. "That's a really terrifying place to practice, so much traffic that the instant you lose concentration you may lose your life. I never dared to go past a hundred there… Oh, my turn's up. Wish me luck!"

Akio watched silently as he watched Tomoyuki drew his lot. He also took a mental note to dig around about this Yuji Kishida. Reina, Ko-chan, or Tatsuya were bound to know a few tidbits if the guy raced in Wangan before.

"123, that's not a bad number. I feel that I landed a podium already!" Tomoyuki remarked as she sat down beside Akio again, smiling.

"Just under our number, 124," Akio added. "I heard you do touge too, Tachi-san?"

"Sssh, not so loud there lad. We're in front of JFA officials, I don't want my license to be suspended this soon," the older guy shushed. "But yeah. I raced Happogahara mostly, but went around to Nagao and Irohazaka too sometimes. Too bad Kogashiwa junior didn't want to do circuit racing, I was hoping that he'll be a fine rival."

"Ken Kogashiwa's son, you say?" Kozo remarked, joining in the chat. "I thought he is going to rally in a few years?

"Yeah. Kai has been scouted by Subaru, but he said he wants to race with Toyota," Tomoyuki said. "Can't blame him, I guess. The new Celica looks so sweet."

The lot drawing comes to a close, and with that the technical meeting concludes. A few of the team representatives scooted out immediately, but some linger to talk. Akio and Kozo chose to go early, bidding farewell to Todo and Tomoyuki as they go.

"So that's how true racing feels like," Akio marveled as the two men drove back to their team's headquarters in Kozo's car.

"Interested in trying, boy?" Kozo offered. "It would be a little… quaint if Red Spirit Racing Team ends with this one race only."

"I don't know, Hoshino-san…" Akio replied. "Three-quarters of them seems like they tuned their Roadsters on their backyard or something, no problems… but the other quarter… I'm not even sure if I can match them with intuition alone."

"You don't race with 'intuition alone', my boy…" the old man said as he opened the driver's window. "How long have you been racing now, Akio?"

"Close to half a year I guess…?" Akio answered the question.

"That's more than enough, kid," Kozo stated. "You have got to pick up some techniques along the way… at least unconsciously. You'll be fine after a few polishing-up from the both of us."

"Yeah…" the youngster added. "I'll think about it, I guess…"

"Oh yeah, stay in the workshop today, Akio. I'll need your assistance first thing in the morning," the older man changed the subject. "We need to get cracking on that final tune, and I hope we can slot in one last practice run before submitting the car to the pre-race impound."

"Okay," Akio said. "I guess Joushima-san can drive Himeko-san to the practice."

* * *

_… (~flashback start~) …_

* * *

_The sun was directly overhead, the cicadas deafening.__ The weather hadn't changed; it had been consistently hot all summer._

_What had changed slightly was the girl.__ She'd been getting closer to me all this time... T__hen, overnight, there was distance again._

"_Morning!__"_

"_Morning...__"_

_As I settled into my usual chair, I noticed her breakfast tray._

"_Dear me, you've left an awful lot...__"_

"_...sorry...__"_

_Overnight, her appetite had disappeared._

"_Now, now, you've got to eat properly.__"_

"_But I don't want it...__"_

"_I sighed.__"_

"_Well, would you prefer something from the caf__e__?__"_

_A moment of silence wafts by. __She didn't reply - though previously she'd have jumped at the offer, whether ice cream was involved or not._

_Up here on the seventh, to stop eating was fatal.__In other wards, intravenous nutrition was an option, but that was basically not used up here, where the drips were primarily for hydration, with a little sugar in them at most._

"_Look here, if you don't eat properly, you'll get weaker.__"_

"_...weaker?__"_

"_Right. You've got to give your body enough food.__'_

"_...and then what?__"_

"_Huh...?__"_

"_If I get weaker, then what?__"_

"_Y-you'll...__"_

_I stopped.__ The word __**die**__ suddenly __stuck in my throat._

_Generally the task of explaining life and death fell to the church. The helper's r__o__le was limited to support...__ and patients up here had normally lived full lives, so they could just be told that the approach of death meant peace.__ But that hardly applied to a girl like this, who had barely lived at all.__ Who on earth could explain death to someone like her...?_

_Maybe that was a time when the right thing to do would be to read to her from the words of someone wise.__ Someone like Saint Augustine, or Jesus Christ himself...__but all I could do for her was offer up half a prayer, and buy ice cream..._

* * *

_… (~flashback end~) …_

* * *

"Good morning, dear," Joushima greeted as his wife opened the door to Himeko's temporary apartment. "How was last night?"

"Fine. There's nothing to note all night. Her cousin hasn't gone home yet, though… I can't help but to feel worried," the wife replied. "She's in the bath right now."

"Are you sure she'll gonna be alright?" Toshiya said, concerned.

"I was waiting by the closet until you knocked," the wife replied. "She was doing okay. The steroids are doing a good job in strengthening her muscles… she could be mistaken for a healthy racer in her getup."

"That's good to know. The boy's in the workshop with Kozo, said they had a few things to do. They called me yesterday afternoon, and Himeko has already been texted," the old man said. "Why don't you get some rest now… I'll take over."

"Thanks, dear," the wife said, sneaking a peck to her husband's cheek. "What are the plans for today?"

"Nothing serious I guess, aside from a bit of testing in the afternoon…" Joushima remarked. "From what Kozo told me, they're still tweaking around and won't be finished until at least two o'clock… plenty of time for you to get some rest. I'll wake you when we're going there."

"Oh, hello doctor!" Himeko chirped as she emerged from the bathroom.

"Fresher than ever, I see," Toshiya commented lightly. "Kozo had some spec change planned for your car; said you can potentially get a second or two off. We'll be testing the car this afternoon, before submitting it to impound tomorrow."

"Okay then," Himeko said. "Oku-san[27] needs to rest, really."

"Now don't you take that kind of tone against me, young lady," the older female quipped as she climbed to the already-laid out futon and dozes off.

"Joushima-san," the 23-year old girl said as the middle-aged doctor sat by the low table. "Can I… ask you something?"

"Go ahead," the old physician replied, almost absent-mindedly.

"Do you have children?" Himeko asked.

"Yes. Both are exceptionally gifted," Joushima answered, a small smile playing on his lips. "My son, twenty years of age, is studying Engineering in Tokyo. My daughter, seventeen, attends a boarding school in Sendai."

"Is that so…" Himeko sighed as she poured herself a glass of water.

"Why the sudden question?" Joushima asked.

"I'm just wondering, really…" Himeko replied.

* * *

_… (~flashback start~) …_

* * *

_Late at night, some days later. She still wasn't eating. __I was keeping her company, sleeping in the spare bed.__ Then that night s__he coughed violently._

"_Are you all right?__"_

"_Yeah...__"_

_All I could do for her was to pat her softly on the back.__Days of untouched food had left her strength visibly fading__, a__nd these days she was openly trying to push me away.__She scarcely replied when I spoke to her, and she never spoke of her own accord…__ unt__il now._

"_You can... have this back.__"_

"_...the rosary?__"_

_She took it from her p__a__jama pocket and held it out. It was unmistakably the one I'd given her._

"_And... I don't want you to come here any more...__"_

"_W-why not? What's come over you all of a sudden?__"_

"_I...__"_

_That was all she said.__Her behaviour had been visibly strange for some days. In fact, I reali__z__ed, it was ever since...__A while ago..._

"_...didn't you say a lady stranger had talked to you?__"_

"_...yeah...__"_

"_And, what she said...__was it something to do with __'__rules__'__?__"_

"_...__"_

_This time she didn't reply at all__, b__ut that silence didn't feel like a __'__no__'__. It felt like she wasn't denying it.__I'd always thought the rules thing was just a rumor. Apparently it wasn't; apparently she'd been told them._

"_What did she say? Can you tell me?__"_

"_I, I...__"_

"_Don't worry. I'll keep it really secret.__"_

"_S-she said I mustn't tell anyone at all...__"_

_She burst into tears. It was the first time I'd seen her cry._

_Rules... rumor had it that they were passed down only among hospice patients. That they only concerned the dying.__In which case, perhaps I had no right to know them._

_However close we might have been, I was Alois, not Patrasche - I could only watch her depart, not go with her..._

_Her sobs filled the room._

"_Sorry... I won't ask again...__"_

_All I could do was pat her on the back, and pray that she might stop crying just a little sooner, that she might start smiling just a little...__but she cried on.__Thinking about it, I could easily guess what some of these `__rules__' might be.__One would be don't eat__, s__ince that was a relatively easy way out.__We helpers had long wondered about this._

_It was strangely rare for people up here to die from a worsening of their condition.__What we saw far more frequently was for people to enter a sudden decline, as though they'd willed their appetite away.__I could well imagine people believing that it would lighten the burden those they left behind - economically, spiritually, in all sorts of ways._

_Her pushing me away would have been driven by the same sort of concern - to reduce the impact on friends and loved ones, even just a little...__ a__nd along with those `rules', presumably she'd also been told the awful truth._

"_Um, by the way...__"_

"_...where _are_ Mummy and Daddy?__"_

"_...__"_

"_Am I gonna die?__"_

"_I, um...__"_

_Once more, I couldn't continue._

"_How am I supposed to know if you won't answer me...?__"_

_I wanted to answer her.__I knew that this, of all times, was when I had to say something...__I thought I knew how to be kind. And why was I a Catholic, if not to explain life, death, eternity? I__ just__ couldn't find the words._

_Outside the window, the sky was growing paler with the approaching dawn.__The cramped room echoed with her sobs.__So much for my being a `doctor'._

_I wondered about real doctors - Doctors of the Church, like Augustine and Jerome.__What would they have been able to say...?_

"_Then... just tell me one thing...__"_

"_...where is God?__"_

"_Huh...?__"_

"_He can't__ e__ve__n__ hear us praying... not even when we did it in the church...__"_

_I forced my gaping mouth to close._

"_...sorry... I don't know...__"_

"_Oh... even you can't tell me...__"_

_She got out of her bed and went to the window._

"_...isn't he up in the sky?__"_

_She looked up there, up into the dawn sky, through that unopenable window._

"_Hey...__"_

"_I want to go up on the roof...__"_

"_...the roof?__"_

"_Yeah... cos, maybe if we pray somewhere just a little higher up...__"_

"_...maybe that'll be near enough for him to hear us then...__"_

"_...__"_

"_...can't we?__"_

"_No, of course we can!__"_

_I helped her along towards the stairs.__It wasn't a place patients could really go. It wasn't allowed.__But right now__, __as an Alois who couldn't do anything but buy ice cream, as a `doctor' who couldn't answer the simplest question__… __I didn't have any choice._

* * *

_… (~flashback end~) …_

* * *

"And that's a wrap!" Kozo announced as the Roadster rolled into the garage. Unlike their usual practice days, the circuit is now packed with RoadSpec teams from all over Japan. In fact, Red Star Racing wouldn't have gotten a paddock garage had Kozo not arranged for it earlier.

"How's my time, chief?" Himeko said as she took off the white helmet.

"One minute eight point two five two seconds," Akio said, coming up from the back of the garage holding a clip-board. "A little over two seconds improvement over your best time, Himeko-nee."

"Aww yeah! Now I can really feel that trophy!" Himeko exclaimed.

"Let's not get ahead on ourselves, shall we?" Joushima said as he came in from the side of the garage. "Word around the paddocks said that both Team Mitaki and Todo Juku got one minute seven, while Snake Eyes almost broke into one minute six."

"Snake Eyes?" Akio asked.

"Yeah, they say they got the number 111 as race number," Joushima said. "I don't think they have a formal name as such."

"Yuji Kishida, huh…" Akio muttered. "As expected as a Wangan racer…"

"You seem to know something about the guy, Akio," Kozo said.

"Not exactly, chief… Wangan is quite a long stretch of road, and racers rarely meet each other unless we arranged for a race, like me, Akikawa-san, and a few of our friends," Akio explained. "But we hear rumors of each other, and it's the primary means of knowing who's who up there. I've never heard of this Yuji Kishida though, so it's quite possible that either he just started in Wangan, or has been laying low for a while."

"Interesting," the team chief remarked. "It's a lot like Touge, actually. Each region has its own legendaries."

"I'll dig around for info later, chief," Akio volunteered. "Never hurts to know who that guy is, especially when he supposedly came from my neighborhood."

"You do that," Kozo said. "As for our qualifiers… what are our chances?"

"We're actually in the high percentiles," Akio remarked. "I think we're well within the top 30 or so racers according to the guys at the timing boards. We can qualify quite handily, although we might not get pole[28] if other teams can manage times like Joushima-san said…"

"Well, qualifying is good enough for us at this point," Joushima said. "Due to your condition, I think it's better for us to take it easy for a bit."

"Will taking it easy net me the win?" Himeko asked, her tone cool but piercing.

"It can," the doctor replied. "The longer you push your body to the limit, the more dangerous it is. It will be better if we can push it at the last moments when everyone else is starting to tire. Much like long-distance running…"

"Okay, okay, we got it doc. Take it easy for now," Kozo cut the doctor's explanation short. "Well, let's prep the car for impound, then."

* * *

**Glossary:**

[b]: Touge is the Japanese terminology for a _specific_ form of street racing _done in mountain-pass roads_. Initial D revolves around these kind of races.

[27]: Oku-san is a rather old and polite way to refer to a housewife in Japanese. It means something like "Mistress of The House".

[28]: For those who aren't inclined to racing, a 'pole' position is the first position in the starting grid of a race.

* * *

**A/N:**

And the seventh chapter is on! Well, a bit rushed actually. I found out that without incorporating the third block of flashbacks, the story can't really go on without further confusing readers (UP TO ELEVEN)… so yeah. More flashbacks, and I was forced to split the chapter-precursor to two to avoid overly-long/overly-abundant flashbacks (AS IF IT'S NOT TOO LONG ALREADY MAN). Guh, I'm starting to self-deprecate here. Also creative liberties for the race itself. Gaaaa.

Anyway, we're in the championship arc, so pray to God that I develop better "non-battle action scene-writing" by now, or some of the readers might die of boredom. Next update might lag again, although it is my oath that I complete this. Thanks for reading!


	8. Jessica

DISCLAIMER:

All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki, Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts and flashbacks are in italic. Flashbacks will be noted as such.

* * *

_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Chapter 8: Jessica_

* * *

"Hello, this is Akikawa speaking," the voice across the line said.

"Ah, hello Reina-san, this is Akio," Akio said through his newly-bought cellullar phone.

"Ah, Akio! How's your team?" Reina said jovially. "I've just checked in at the hotel…"

"Our team's doing pretty good so far," the younger teenager replied. "Managed a one minute zero-eight today before impound. The baseline is around one ten or one eleven, so we did pretty well."

"Good to hear, good to hear," Reina said jovially. "By the way, I just met Larkson on the lobby and he gave me an autograph. You owe me now kid!"

"What? Wow, thanks! Haha! Now I can shove it to Shima's face…" Akio gleefully said. "Oh yeah, I have something to ask…"

"Anything I can do, then?" Reina replied.

"Yeah… you've been on Wangan longer than me, know somebody named Yuji Kishida?" Akio asked.

"Yuji Kishida, huh…" the presenter mused. "I don't think I ever heard of the guy. Then again, I know only a handful of runners. Any clue on what he's riding?"

"Well, he's pretty fast on a Roadster, so I figure he used one from the get-go," the youngster replied. "He's on the fast track on getting pole in this race."

"Hmm~ quite a mysterious guy…" the presenter replied. "Any idea on who his tuner is? I might know…"

"Hmm… I don't know if this is his tuner or not, but he was linked to someone. I think it was… Yamamoto? Yamamoto Hiko-something…"Akio said. "I think this Yamamoto-san is quite famous as a tuner."

"Now that's a name I know…" Reina replied, her tone brighter. "He's the man who tuned my R32. His name's Kazuhiko Yamamoto, and he does Skylines mainly. Now he is a formidable tuner… they say he is second only to the Demon Tuner himself."

"Demon Tuner?" the young man perked up at the mention. "Sounds formidable… both of them."

"They are. Some say most of the original members of Midnight Club got their cars tuned by either Yamamoto-san or that Demon Tuner," Reina said. "Yamamoto-san has limits even he won't cross… the Demon Tuner has none of those."

"Anyway, we're still in big trouble if this Yamamoto-san is remotely as good as you make it to be…" Akio said pensively. "Maybe I'll ask Shima. As good as the tuning behind him is, I still have to know this Kishida's actual driving ability."

"Good idea!" Reina chirped. "You do that while me, Tsuchiya-san, and Larkson-san have a nice sushi dinner nearby."

"You cheat!" Akio shrieked, mock hurt in his voice. "Naah. Have fun with the old guys!"

"That I will," Reina replied. "Do text me with the results."

"Materials to compare with?" Akio playfully replied.

"Yeah. You've got to have something to discuss with the other hosts, the specs don't mean much to people," the presenter said. "So far we have the time sheets from the last races, and we'll surely be getting qualifying team profiles by the end of the qualifiers tomorrow. We might get the general gist of things but the details will be determined by the grunt work."

"Okay then… I help you, you help me. Oh, yeah… can I ask of another favor Reina-san?" Akio asked.

"It depends," the female presenter playfully said.

"Um… don't mention Himeko-nee's condition before race day?" the mechanic said.

"Why…?" Reina straightened up.

"It's her request actually… please tell me you haven't let it slip…" Akio pleaded.

"No, not really…" Reina replied. "I barely talked to anyone about this outside of the little fund-raising."

"I hope they mostly stay in Tokyo for the moment," the mechanic sighed in relief. "I don't really get why Himeko-san would want this, but if you could keep it up it will be great. The running cover story is stomach flu so she can't be in the technical meetings prior to race."

"That's simple enough. Alright then," the presenter remarked. "Shouldn't you get going now?"

"I will. Have a good time!" Akio said as he hung up. "Now to phone Shima…"

A few seconds' wait was on as the auto-dialer did its job. Akio had bought the simpler cellular phone model despite Himeko's 'suggestion' of having a more sophisticated model. He had thought that he'd need the phone primarily for texting and calling someone, so he wouldn't need all the unnecessary bells and whistles.

"dr. Tatsuya Shima speaking," the calm and controlled voice once again greeted Akio.

"Oh hey, this is Asakura…" Akio replied. "You're not busy aren't you Shima?"

"Oh, it's you. No, I'm in a lull right now," the surgeon said lightly. "Not many emergencies were routed to our hospital lately."

"Oh, okay. I need to ask about a Wangan racer named Yuji Kishida…" the mechanic said. "His car is tuned by Kazuhiko Yamamoto, and he is going to be something of an unknown ace to us in the coming RoadSpec race."

"So you're finally in the official racing business now…" Shima chuckled. "Good for you."

"Thanks, but that depends on Himeko-nee's performance really…" Akio replied. "Back to the topic on hand?"

"Hmm, that guy…" the surgeon replied, as if taking a drag of his cigarette. "Yeah, I met him a few times on Wangan. Yamamoto-san is his half-brother."

"Really…" Akio said with discrete interest.

"They were running a few different cars each time I met them. I've seen him in a Skyline, a Roadster, and an NSX," Shima continued. "I think Yamamoto-san is looking for a demo car for YamamotoSpeed, while taking his half-brother under his wings."

"Hmm… so Kishida was groomed to be Yamamoto's successor in racing?" Akio surmised.

"I wouldn't have been too surprised if it's the case," Shima replied. "And with this appearance in RoadSpec, it's pretty much confirmed. Yamamoto-san was a career driver too once."

"I see… is Kishida any good then?" Akio asked.

"He's pretty average on Wangan, though I had heard some C1 regulars are having a hard time with a rider lately. It might as well be him," Shima replied. "I rarely go to C1 myself… you know what Blackbird is good at, and I like to capitalize on that."

"I see… he might not be very good at straights but quite a force in tighter turns…" Akio said.

"So, is your racer any good?" Shima diverted the topic at hand. "I think Akikawa is going to cover that race."

"Yeah, we met. She also got us much-needed funds I mentioned last time," Akio replied. "As for our racer… we've got good progress but our rivals are tougher than we're expecting. Like that Kishida, he almost got to one minute six at the practice rounds. We got one minute eight point two, while most of everyone else are in the one minute ten to twelve range."

"I see. Sorry for my inability to support… oh, right… Sorry Akio, an emergency patient just came in. Good luck for the race," the physician said, hanging up abruptly.

"Good luck to you too, Shima," Akio mouthed the last sentence.

* * *

_… (~flashback start~) …_

* * *

_The violet dawn sky was growing light with the sunrise.__The rooftop was empty and lifeless.__Ringed with a fence higher than the ceilings of the seventh, which sang from time to time in the wind._

"_It feels good up here...__"_

_She murmured, as though to herself.__ Then,__ from her pocket__,__ she drew a rosary. The one I'd given her._

"_I s__up__pose the magic won't work without this...__"_

_She held it quietly, facing the rising sun, and strung together some words..._

"_...hallowed be thy name...__lead us not into temptation...__"_

_I'd given her these, too__…__ fragments of the Lord's Prayer.__ S__he __coul__dn't__ possibly__ understand what they meant. To her they were just magic incantations that might make God help her._

"_Hey... do you think he heard me this time?__"  
_"_...__"_

_I couldn't nod, but nor could I deny it.__It seemed simpler not to say anything.__Should I have told her she was wasting her time?__Should I have preached about the redemptive nature of suffering?__Or should I have tried to persuade her to be grateful that God had let her live for eight whole years...?_

_I nodded silently. That was all I could do._

_And as she prayed on...__I likewise faced that sky and lifted up my thoughts in prayer..._

_The night air lingered, the sky grew lighter, the cicadas began to buzz, like any other summer's morning._

_And from that hospice roof, I prayed for her. __This time I didn't use half my prayer for my own forgiveness__. I__t was all for her. __My words flew up towards the God I knew should be listening... somewhere..._

* * *

_… (~flashback end~) …_

* * *

"Good morning!" Kozo greeted to the chipper Himeko and a slightly more ruffled Akio. "Ready for the qualifier round?"

"Ready as I can be, Chief!" Himeko said.

"We got the afternoon round, so we'll go after lunch," Joushima said. "It starts at two o'clock and ends at five."

"I think I have a bit of an intel about Yuji Kishida and his team, Chief," Akio said.

"Oh? Good job, boy!" Kozo said, patting the younger man's shoulder.

"So, why is he having a great run?" Himeko asked.

"Well, it turns out that Yuji Kishida and his team is backed by a rather famous tuning shop in Tokyo, YamamotoSpeed," Akio started his explanation. "The shop is owned by Kazuhiko Yamamoto. It is said that he was the one who tuned some of the cars used by the original members of Midnight Club. Reina-san from the other day also tunes her car there."

"A top-notch tuner…" Himeko mouthed. "No wonder he's having great times…

"Wait, that TV presenter was a hashiriya too?" Kozo said in surprise.

"Well I won't know her unless she is," Akio said. "She can keep up with us guys just fine, if that helps."

"No wonder he's getting great time then…" Joushima mused. "How about the driver, then?"

"Yuji Kishida is a relative newcomer in Wangan, but his skill is quite something," Akio explained. "He isn't very good in straights but he is skilled in handling corners, if my friends are to be believed. C1 has some seriously sharp turns and dangerous dividers in there."

"Hm… but that's probably just his car…" Kozo suggested. "The corners of Tsukuba aren't very sharp and mostly high-speed. It's a bit of a mix between double corners, high-speed bends, and three hairpins."

"I think the best place to get him is in one of the parabolics," Himeko offered her opinion. "If he's used to sharper corners he might have a flub there since he isn't good on straights…"

"We have to use the tightest line we can get," Joushima opined.

"About Tomoyuki Tachi, Chief…" Akio asked. "How good is he, actually?"

"He's the fastest man in Happogahara, if that record isn't broken yet," Kozo answered. "Like I said the other day, Happogahara is full of tight turns. I think his style will be a bit like Kishida. Plus, as a touge hashiriya he will have great reflexes, but his line will be a bit predictable since he is used to racing in narrow two-lane roads. Himeko, you had to have some flexibility in battling him."

"Alright, Chief. Joushima-san gave me lots of pointers on that," Himeko said. "With this in mind, we can bet that both Kishida and Tachi will duel for the top post… I suppose it'll be good to stay close behind and wait for an opening to take them both."

"…Which brought us to the next problem, Akemi Homura," Kozo said. "Unlike the first two, I have the race footage from the last two races. She was… quite a reckless one, I'd say."

"Reckless?" Akio asked.

"We have reviewed the tapes, and her driving style is… wild. Very wild. She likes to do quick feints and veers, plus she usually uses a racing line that really didn't give much space to overtake," Joushima answered. "Inexperienced drivers will be hard-pressed to keep up with her, much less overtake her. She'll be very hard to handle, Himeko."

"I see… this will be very different from our usual runs, huh…" Himeko mused.

"But of course. We have more than twenty new variables to consider," Joushima said. "The key for this is to stay calm. The first man to lose his cool will make mistakes, and eventually loses."

"We'll pull through, Himeko-nee!" Akio said, pumping his fist.

"Lunch is ready, all of you," Joushima's wife interrupted.

"Okay then!" Kozo wrapped up the impromptu meeting. "Light lunch for our racer, but the rest of us got to fill up!"

* * *

_… (~flashback start~) …_

* * *

_Then the tears came._

"_Why're you crying?__"_  
"_W-why shouldn't I...?__It's only natural to cry at times like this...__"  
_"_...did Jesus say that too?__"_

_No... those words were my own.__ I__f only… I'd been a saint... __if only...my words had been more than mere platitudes... __if only they'd been real magic..._

_One of us was departing. The other would remain behind.__ A__s an Alois who could never become Patrasche for anyone, however close__… I was all too conscious of my own impotence._

...if only... I'd been a saint...  
...if only... my words had been more than mere platitudes...  
...if only they'd been real magic...  
... this time, they might have worked a miracle...

_I cried._

"_Sorry...__I shouldn't've let you be my friend... __It was even in the rules... __Like, __'__you mustn't make friends up here.__' __Sorry... I shouldn't've broken that... __I shouldn't've made you cry...__"_

_Then she looked back into the sky, and carried on praying.__Her whispers floated up into the infinite blue, towards the God who had to be up there somewhere.__She prayed so earnestly...__Clutching the rosary I'd given her, repeating those fragments of prayers that, to her, were like magic spells..._

"_You can stop now... please stop...!__"  
_"_...why?__"_

_For a moment my tears blocked my reply._

"_...it's pointless... that's why...__"_

_I'd gone and said it. Something no right-minded Christian would dare to think._

"_S-so... just stop, it's not going to help you...__Whatever you do... you're going to die...__"_

_And now I'd gone and said it... something no right-minded helper would dream of saying._

"_Oh, I know...__"  
_"_...then... why do you bother...?__"  
_"_...I'm not praying for myself...__just that you'll stop crying...__just that... you'll smile again...__that's all I'm praying for now...__"_

* * *

_… (~flashback end~) …_

* * *

"Hey, Asakura!" a man in yellow racing overalls waved as Akio arrived at Red Spirit Racing's designated paddock. "You just came?"

"Tachi-san! Good afternoon!" the youngster greeted back, shaking the yellow-clad racer's hand. "Yeah, we're just prepping up here. How are the morning qualifiers?"

"Brutal," the older driver said. "Team Snake Eyes went all-out, and they broke into one six… apparently we under-estimated their new engineers. Crazy stuff, I tell you."

"Huh. As expected from a Wangan-bred racer, I guess…" Akio replied. "And he's faster than in the free tests… scary."

"That's quite a feat, too. Newer model Roadsters get outfitted with ballast weights to even out the competition," Tachi explained. "Yuji's not the man he's used to be I guess. How's your racer, by the way? Hope she's back in shape for the qualifiers."

"Who's that, Akio?" Himeko asked as she emerged from the back, clad in a set of white Alpinestars racing suit.

"Oh, Himeko-nee… nice timing, we're just talking about you. He's Tomoyuki Tachi, a racer from the Todo Juku team. We met in the preliminary meeting," Akio said, introducing Tomoyuki to Himeko. "Tachi-san, meet our racing driver, Himeko Shinohara."

"Nice to meet you!" Tomoyuki said as he shook Himeko's hand. "Asakura-kun here spoke quite highly about you."

"The same here, Tachi-san," Himeko replied. "I take the morning qualifying session was quite something, hmm?"

"You can say that again!" Tomoyuki said. "I barely managed to keep up against Team Snake Eyes."

"Hmm, that will be tough… having you two as our rival," Himeko remarked playfully.

"Well, if you're any good we would have a run for our money right here. Most of the class' participants are backyard tuners anyway," Tomoyuki remarked. "How's your stomach flu, then? I hope nothing remains of that illness. Dreadful, dreadful stuff."

"Oh, I'd say! Doctor Joushima is a true lifesaver," Himeko said lightly. "It's mostly gone, but it cost me the tech meetings…"

"Don't worry! Your team leader and mechanic did a wonderful job!" Tomoyuki said as he laughed, patting Akio's shoulder. "The way he took notes is nothing like an amateur mechanic! How about trying out Todo Juku, Asakura-kun? We offer interesting packages!"

"Oh no sir, you're not poaching Red Star's mechanic," Himeko countered with a quip of her own before Akio got to open his mouth. "We see a bright future for him!"

"Oh, if it isn't Tomoyuki Tachi there," Kozo said as he came in with the Roadster. "She's all yours, Himeko. Warm her up for a bit, we put just enough fuel for five laps in there. Check the radio on your way out, Jou-chan is on it."

"Yes sir," Himeko said as she puts on her matching racing helmet and plugged the cable attached to it to the radio.

"Hello sir! How do you do?" the yellow-clad racer greeted Kozo as Himeko starts to warm the engine up.

"Oh, it's not bad. How many weights did they put into your car?" Kozo replied in a jolly tone.

"A seat's worth…" Tomoyuki replied. "Or around that weight, I'm not quite sure myself. Later-model cars got it pretty rough."

"Of course you have, you got a better engine," Kozo replied as a race official bade Himeko to roll out and stand by. "So, what do you think of our racer?"

"I think I'm not yet qualified to assess racing skills at first glances," Tomoyuki evaded the question.

"You're a seasoned hashiriya yourself, you're more than qualified boy," Kozo said, bringing them back on track. "How will she fare in Happogahara?"

"I'd say not bad, and then it will depend on her ability to adapt," the Happogahara number one replied. "We'll see now."

**…**

As the official on the end of the pit lane signaled her to proceed, Himeko eased her steed into the track. _This is just the warm-up lap… keep it steady, warm the tires for the hot laps_… Himeko thought to herself as she lets the earlier cars zip by. Entering the first corner with medium speed, she tries to take her optimum line while trying to warm her tires, but was foiled by a green Roadster with the race number 313.

"Mother of-" Himeko cursed loudly. "What the hell is wrong with that guy?"

"What happened, Himeko?" came Joushima's reply from the two-way radio.

"A car just swiped past from the inside, nearly crashing with me…" Himeko grunted the reply. "I think the race number's 313…"

"313? I wonder who that is…"

…

"313? I wonder who that is…" Joushima muttered as Akio, Tomoyuki, and Kozo gathered up around him.

"That was… Homura's race number, isn't it?" Akio replied.

"Yes, no doubt about it," Tomoyuki added. "I think I heard the mechanics on the betting pool said that she'll be qualifying this session…"

"Now she had shown her true colors…" Kozo opined. "Tell her to stay calm, Jou-chan. Her tires aren't warm enough at this point…"

"Okay. Himeko, stay calm. Your tires aren't warm enough at this point…"

…

"… Himeko, stay calm. Your tires aren't warm enough at this point…" Joushima urged through the radio.

"Got that, Doc," Himeko replied as she accelerated out of the second corner. "When did she got out, really? Should be at least two laps earlier than us…"

"Hang on, Akio and Kozo are asking to the timing board…" Joushima said over the line. "Where are you now?"

"Entering turn one… traffic pretty light, 313 has blazed off somewhere…" Himeko said, carefully lowering her speed and preparing for the first hairpin.

"Himeko, this is Kozo," another voice from the radio came in as she sped out of the chicane, keeping her position behind a garishly-painted Roadster with the race number 765. "We asked about when car 313 went out… apparently she went out around one lap before you, Himeko."

"What?" Himeko replied incredulously as she entered the hairpin, the shock causing her to miss the apex. "There's no way that her tires would get warm enough to pull that stunt!"

* * *

_… (~flashback start~) …_

* * *

_Her words shook me to my core._

"_But you… you're the one dying… how… how could you be so calm…?"  
_"_I… don't get it either. Mommy and Daddy never liked it if I cry… so I guess that's why…"_

_I have no more words. The sheer emotional weight of this last couple of hours far outweighed my entire time as a helper. And I've been in here two times before, witnessed twice how His emissaries took the life of my charges. Sudou-san died in his sleep, content that his shop will run well in his son's hands. Takahashi-san passed away while sitting on the reading room, not long after the news that her grandson graduated from a prestigious school of medicine with flying colors. They all have lived a full life._

_She wasn't even a sixth their age, God! Her path has so many forks still! Why now? Why her?  
Nobody answered that question, of course.  
Then if You won't fulfill her dreams, I will. Your blessing be damned._

"_Do you… have a dream?"_

_I barely croaked out. My throat is hoarse from so much crying._

"_Eh?"  
_"_A dream… somewhere you wanted to be… something you really wanted to get…?"_  
"_Not really…"_

_My heart sank. Of course, she's only nine years of age, stupid princess. Even I haven't thought of anything concrete at that age._

"… _But Dad… has always dreamed of making me a champion racer…"  
_"_Do you want to?"_

_I'm grasping straws, but even straws float, right? If I grasped enough straws, I will float._

"_Mm… maybe it'll be nice…"_  
"_Then in your stead, I will be one."  
_"_Eh? But Onee-san doesn't have to…"_  
"_Yeah, but someone had to do it. Someone has to do it for you."  
_"_But…"  
_"_Just relax in Heaven and wait for my news. At least I'll die trying. You'll know, either way."_

* * *

_… (~flashback end~) …_

* * *

"… no way that her tires would get warm enough to pull that stunt!"

"I think Himeko-nee is right, Chief…" Akio opined just out of the mic's range. "Even usually we need something like two laps to get Himeko-nee's tires to be properly warmed up…"

"Unless… they used that…" Tomoyuki said gingerly. "Sir, may I have that rulebook?"

"What do you mean?" Kozo said, giving the rulebook to Tomoyuki.

"Tire heaters…" Tomoyuki mumbled as he scanned through the booklet. "As I thought… there are no rules about pre-heating the tires prior to race…"

"Tire heaters?" Akio asked no one in particular. "Doesn't they only used in open-wheel[29] races, and just recently at that?"

"Well, it's the only immediate and logical explanation," Tomoyuki said. "Otherwise there is no way that she can build up enough tire temperature to tackle such an aggressive line."

"Interesting…" Joushima muttered. "For a bunch of relative amateurs, they already are using advanced weaponry. This is the thing that makes them so competitive…"

"Crazy…" Akio mumbled. "To think that we are doing the basic class… I can't picture what FT-class teams are doing to their cars…"

"Himeko, where are you now?"

…

"… where are you now?" Joushima asked from across the line.

"Just past corner nine, almost at the second hairpin," Himeko reported. "I heard chatter back there, Doc. What's happening?"

"Tachi-kun seemed to have some guesses about 313," Joushima replied. "Nothing concrete though, only speculation. Concentrate on warming your tires for now."

"Roger that… entering corner ten," Himeko said, guiding the car into a slightly-wider line around the apex of the turn at a slower pace than her best. "Main straight ahead… I suppose we should do a bit of a wiggle to warm the tires a bit?"

"Go ahead, your race-day won't be Miracle on Ice or something," Joushima said. "Forecast said about forty to sixty percent chance of rain at race day, so Kozo wants to use softer compound tires so we don't have to change immediately if it indeed rained. I hope we can get a good time today so it lightens your work in raceday."

"So I should expect the car to have a more defensive bent and a little more grippy on race day," the driver said as she drove on a zigzag path, trying to soak the asphalt's heat to her tires. "Fair enough I guess."

"How's your body then?" the doctor continued. "Anything felt weird? Nausea, dizziness, anything of the like?"

"No Doc, I feel fine," the racer replied quickly as she wiggled her way past the halfway mark of the straight-away.

"If you say so, if you say so," the physician chuckled. "We'll run a short check after you finish."

…

"… we'll run a short check after you finish."

"What am I, a robot? Oh wait, I'm better. I'm The Stig," Himeko quipped as she nears the longest corner on the track, a long right-hand bend that opens up to the pit straight. "I'm entering long corner now."

"Roger that. Up the pace as you cross the line," Joushima said. "Would you need more radio assistance?"

"Long corner is loooong…" the racer drawled as she made her way through the corner. "I'll be fine Doc. You'll hear me cursing, anyway!"

"Sure you will. Remember your panic word, okay?" Joushima. "Well, paddock out, then."

"Okay Doc," Himeko said simply as she came out of the bend into the pit straight, stepping her acceleration full-on to squeeze out some more power out of the 1.6 liter engine.

**…**

"…Okay Doc!"

"Well, there you have it," Joushima said as he stood up from the radio. "She'll be alright without us for a while."

"Um… hello?" a voice called from outside the garage. "Is Tomoyuki here?"

"Yuji! Come on in, you weasel!" Tomoyuki called the young man in. "I was just chatting with a few of our rivals here."

"Ooh, so this is the star performer of the morning qualifiers," Joushima commented, eyeing the unassuming young man in the red half-unzipped racing suit. "Looks are quite deceitful these days, I see."

"H-how do you do, sir!" Yuji nervously said as he bowed deeply. "Yuji Kishida, from Tokyo, nice to meet you all!"

"Oh, don't be so formal," Kozo replied the young man, chuckling slightly. "I'm Kozo Hoshino, team leader of Red Spirit Racing. This is my team doctor Toshiya Joushima, and mechanic Akio Asakura."

"A-akio Asakura? Of Devil Z's fame?" Yuji blurted out. "Undisputed King of Wangan?"

"Well… kind of," Akio said sheepishly, offering a hand-shake. "We happen to have the same name and car, but I think I'm not quite there yet."

"You're still quite something, though! I heard Blackbird started a feud with you…" Yuji said as he shook Akio's hands. "Uh, wait… you're only a mechanic?"

"Yeah. I'm supporting my cousin," the young man said, smiling. "She's out there in the circuit."

"B-… but why?" Yuji sputtered out a reply. "Us Wangan drivers are considered the top of the top of the street racers of Japan… we don't just bow to someone else!"

"I… used to think like that too, actually. More so since I have Devil Z, the One Amongst Ones as people call it," Akio said, exhaling to reinforce his point somehow. "But then I meet my cousin, with her little, red, and rusty Eunos Roadster. Took a while for the hammer to strike, but eventually it does."

"But why… what set her apart from the rest? Her car is only a rusty Roadster!" Yuji is practically bellowing by now.

"Because she lived," Akio replied simply, asking Joushima for a cue, of which the older man gave. "She had lived where neither I nor you would certainly have not."

"A colleague of mine gave her a maximum of eighteen months to live, with painful and debilitating therapy that follows," Joushima moved in to reinforce Akio's statement. "She lived for another twelve. And counting."

The weather was clear and hot, but the thunder in Yuji and Tomoyuki's ears couldn't be louder.

"Ah, her battle-song," Joushima commented as a tuneless song started from the two-way radio. "In time for the timed lap, too."

**…**

Himeko hummed. It was a mangled and unfinished rendition of an old tune she once or twice heard in television, a time ago. The source isn't even important to her anymore.

It stuck, somehow, at the tip of her tongue. It always surfaces, somehow, when she is concentrating aboard her steed. The two-way radio always broadcasted it to the paddock, and the pit crew grow to call it the 'Valkyrie's Call'. It helps her concentrate, anyway. And so the proverb 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it' was applied; Joushima only shrugged while Kozo chuckled. Akio was rather neutral.

It's now her third lap, and also her timed one. Upping her pace once more, her shaved dry compound tire was now hot enough to give its maximum grip. Approaching the first part of a long hairpin corner at the end of the pit straight, one can almost feel the rapid deceleration as Himeko fought to lower her speed just right for the corner. Any slower, she might lose precious seconds. Any faster, the risk of losing control and spinning out becomes too great.

Of all the basic lessons Joushima taught her, the most important is to stick as near as possible to the inner wall at the apex of a corner. _Out, in, out_, Himeko mentally iterated as she negotiated the second part of the corner with a practiced finesse. Free to accelerate again, she stepped hard on the acceleration pedal, intent on squeezing out all power the 1,6 liter engine her NA Roadster have for the relatively straight section up ahead.

After two quick corners, loom the second hairpin turn. It's less tight than the next one and is entered with generally less speed, thus considered easier than the last hairpin. _That is where the demons lie_, Himeko thought as she carefully positioned her car and attacked the apex. True to her expert's guidance, she took it smoothly and followed the exit line reasonably well.

_From here I have a small stretch of straight-away before the seventh, eighth, and ninth corners_, Himeko thought as she down-shifted for the seventh corner, an almost ninety-degree bend. Having learned acceleration control from Kozo Hoshino, one of the best street racers in Gunma, the young lady tries to smoothly take the apex only to be foiled by the deceptive track width. _Aicha… definitely not on Chief's level yet…_ Himeko grunted as she felt the slightly-raised berm grinding harshly against her outward-facing tires.

The eighth and ninth corners of the racetrack are two light left-handers. Drivers mainly built up speed here before tackling the third hairpin, namely turns ten and eleven. Himeko was no exception, as her NA lapped a black car numbered 961 just past the eighth corner.

"Last hairpin, eh…?" Himeko muttered as she steers the front end of her roadster into turn ten, fighting for grip despite her adequately-warmed tires. Struggling to keep her back end aligned, Himeko took the very tightest line she had managed until now, grinding slightly against the inner berm.

Exiting the eleventh corner, Himeko finally gets a chance to catch a bit of breath as the Roadster accelerated swiftly into the long straight-away. _Come on, come on, come on_… Himeko mentally iterated as her Roadster took meter after meter of the 272-meter straight, ending in the final and twelfth turn of the circuit.

The dial on the speedometer had almost made it to 160 when Himeko stepped on the brakes, decelerating as not to miss the tightest line in the longest corner of the track. _Steady does it… steady does it… _Himeko thought, steadily reducing the speed of her car as she made her way past the apex of the long corner. She finally accelerated in kind three-fourth of the way from the entrance of the long corner, thrusting the car past the line.

**…**

Himeko coasted the pit lane as her cool-down lap finishes, making her way through the paddocks in a sedate pace. Pit crews can be seen milling about, wrapping up work as the afternoon session of the qualifiers ended around them. After a few minutes of driving, she reached the paddock belonging to her team, Red Spirit Racing. Kozo and Akio approached as she stopped the engine.

"How's my time, chief?" the girl said as she took off her helmet.

"One minute… zero…" Kozo teased, while Akio smiled and Himeko leaned to the front. "Seven, point five zero six. Well done!"

"Point-eight second faster than your fastest time, Himeko-nee!" Akio said elatedly.

"Phew…" Himeko sighed, a heavy burden lifted from her shoulders. "I missed some important points there, Chief. I should've hit one seven zero-something."

"Good enough to put you fourth on the grid, girl," the team leader said, dismissing his racer's what-if scenario. "We'll take it and work our way from that."

"Fourth? Well that's to be expected, really…" Himeko was genuinely astounded. "Who's the top three?"

"Yuji Kishida got pole, while Tomoyuki got second… their times is very near to each other," Akio said. "The third was a foreigner. His name was Larry… Folker?"

"Larry Faulkner," Kozo corrected. "His time is only a shadow better than you, but he's a total enigma. Jou-chan is looking for information right now."

"Interesting…" Himeko mouthed, smiling. "A champion's way is always rocky, isn't it…"

"Hello," a female voice stated as Himeko disembarked her Roadster. Akio just stared there slack-jawed, apparently not even noticing the stranger approaching, while Kozo elected to ignore the small spectacle and boarded the Roadster, taking it back to the impound.

"Ara, who might you be?" Himeko said, offering a hand-shake to the newcomer.

"Akemi Homura," the other racer simply stated, while dropping one of her black racing gloves to the ground. "We'll see if you live up to my expectations or not, Himeko Shinohara."

"How rude," Himeko replied, bending down to take the glove and return it to its owner. "And a waste of good racing gear."

"I will defeat you," Akemi stated simply, taking back the black racing glove. Quietly the female racer stalked off to her own pit, getting what she set out to do.

"What the heck is wrong with that girl?" Akio angrily grunted, venting the tension building up from that scene.

"Who knows," Himeko said simply. "She won't make it easy for us, that's for sure. Where is she on the grid?"

"Fifth," Akio said after a purposeful glance to the timing sheet. "One minute seven point five zero nine."

"Ah… no wonder," Himeko mused. "Things just get a whole lot more interesting…"

* * *

**Glossary:**

[29]: 'open-wheel' racing is easiest defined as racing with vehicles which most of the wheels, including its upper sides, is visible. Formula 1 is an open-wheel type of racing.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Another chapter. My girlfriend said that it's too wordy, but added that i should go ahead since it's done anyway. It may be true, I knew her to say the truth anyway. So here You go, the eighth chapter of this fic. Not many chapters to go. Wish me luck.


	9. Skill

DISCLAIMER:

All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki, Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts are in _italic_. Since Mr. Larkson is commenting in English and this fic is set in the same language (while in actuality almost all of the characters spoke in Japanese), I decided to render the spoken English in _**bold-italic**_.

* * *

_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Chapter 9: Skill_

* * *

"Popcorn, Toushirou-jisan?" Akio offered his uncle a bucket of caramel popcorn.

"Haha, thanks," the uncle chuckled as he accepted the proffered bucket, taking a few of the contents to eat.

"It's such an overcast day," the aunt remarked. "What if it rains? There are so many things that can go wrong in rain races…"

"Don't worry, Ayako-basan," Akio replied, trying to dissuade the uncertainty. "We set the car to be more grippy."

"Grippy?" Ayako replied with another question.

"It means that the car would not slide out much," Toushirou pitched in. "It will not slip its wheels or something like that, like that one time we got into the mountains in winter without tire chains."

"I see…" Ayako replied, not really understanding his husband anyway.

"We're aiming for a safer race for Himeko-nee," Akio said tentatively, after struggling to find words a layman would easily understand. "She would be a little bit slower, but she will turn better."

"Ah, I see…" Ayako replied simply. "Do you think she can win this, Akio?"

"Uh… well, we have a chance," Akio said in uncertainty. "Himeko-nee managed to get the fourth-place starting spot. It will be a victory of its own if she can keep that place at the end of the race…"

"Fourth out of twenty racers out of fifty teams are plenty enough for us, Akio-kun," Toushirou chimed. "I really thank you for the hard work."

"No… this is mostly her hard work, jisan," Akio said, throwing a fond gaze to the pit straight below. "Even I am amazed that a previously-bedridden person like Himeko-nee can go bumper-to-bumper with some of the best amateur racers that Hoshino-kaichou and Joushima-san has seen to date, after only one and a half month of preparations."

"She is a bit of a bull-head, I give you that," Ayako said, a little sigh escaping her mouth as she finishes the sentence. "We almost had a heart attack when she phoned us saying that she wanted to race. We both have resolved to reject the idea until you two and Doctor Joushima met us."

"Even after that, we still had our doubts," Toushirou added. "Not until the tickets for today came with the notice of Himeko getting the fourth place out of so many racers, that our doubt finally vanished. You can even say that I'm pretty proud of her!"

"Am I on time?" a voice urgently asked from behind Akio.

"Wha- oh, it's you Kotomine-san," Akio said, turning to meet the preacher's gaze. "You're right on time. They just did a warm-up lap and is now lining up for the start."

"Praise The Lord! The parking lot was quite packed, I have to park a bit further," Kotomine said as he took the seat next to Akio. "Chihiro would've complained."

"You people aren't with Chihiro-san?" Akio asked.

"She wants to take care of patients because several of her volunteer friends took up leaves," Ayako replied. "Poor girl, shoehorned like that…"

"She's too kind," Toushirou commented before lighting up his cigarette and taking a drag.

"A rare devotion amongst the youth of today," the priest added.

…

"Here we are, live from Tsukuba Circuit for the annual RoadSpec Race in Tsukuba event! Right beside me are the commentators for this race, Drift King Keiichiro Tsuchiya-san and English automotive journalist, Mr. Jeremy Larkson!" Reina announced enthusiastically in the media center of the circuit before switching to English. "_**So, how are the chances for today Mr. Larkson?**_"

"_**This has been a pleasant day, having a balmy, sort-of-cloudy day**_," Larkson replied, his thickly-accented British English. "_**We can't really ask for a better condition compared to the awfully baking summer back home**_**.**"

"We're quite lucky to have this weather, isn't it Tsuchiya-san?" Reina translated part of the short exchange as a stepping stone for a dialogue with Tsuchiya. "Compared to the current heat England is having, Larkson-san said."

"The rain is holding off for the moment, but from the starting data we have here, more than half of the teams are running on dry tires," Tsuchiya noted as he gazed to a datasheet. "To be fair, this is relatively short race and the wind is quite strong, so hoping that the weather will clear up is a viable strategy."

"_**Teams seemed to opt for dry tires hoping for a better weather, Mr. Larkson!**_" Reina translated back to Larkson, who is watching the monitor closely.

"_**Do you think you can read up some profiles for this race, dear?**_" came Larkson's reply after poring the text for a while. "_**The data sheet of the FT class has been translated, but the data sheet from this class isn't…**_"

"_**Let me give you the short version then…**_" Reina said, before deftly explaining the contents of the datasheet to the foreigner.

…

"Makoto, quick!" a middle-aged woman seated before a low table said aloud. "The race is going to start and your presenter friend is spouting gibberish!"

"Geez, mom!" the girl called Makoto replied, bringing over a pitcher of syrup and a bowl of snacks. "That's English!"

"I know," the mother replied, chuckling. "She's number 124."

"Ooh, the red car on the fourth position?" Makoto remarked as a nearby wireless receiver beeped. "Looking good!"

There was a few moments of silence as Makoto gazed to the TV while her mother chats enthusiastically with the person across the telephone line.

"Another from the survivor club?" Makoto asked as her mother hung up.

"Yup. Sakatsuka-san is a racing enthusiast, too," Makoto's mother answered. "He said he has just been out of today's radiotherapy session and is looking for a TV set he can commandeer."

"To think that she managed to do this…" Makoto said, sighing. "Her willpower is crazy strong."

"Yeah," the mother replied, a quaint smile on her lips. "She's a beautiful example of the unbreakable human spirit…"

…

"Radio systems check, respond if it's working, Himeko," Kozo spoke to the radio unit.

"Loud and clear, chief," came Himeko's reply through the radio. "I think the car's in top condition, too."

"Hahah! We worked hard on it, after all," Kozo replied. "Take it easy on the gas there, we used a bit less fuel."

"Huh, I thought we can carry a bit more since I weigh less," Himeko quipped in reply.

"The lighter the car is, the better. Besides, we have to put a few extra liters of drinking water for you in there," Joushima took over from Kozo. "How's your body? Any dizziness, nausea, the likes?"

"Just a little butterfly in my tummy, doctor," Himeko replied. "It's quite an overcast day though. I don't know if I'll stay awake, such a fine day to nap."

"Alright. As soon as you feel dizzy, shout the panic word to us and pull out. Nobody will blame you for losing that way, what little life you have is still important," Joushima replied. "Be safe out there. In our hearts you have already won a victory."

"I'll try not to die, doctor. Thanks," Himeko joked again. "Is Akio there?"

"No, he's at the grandstands with your parents. We'll call him in the instant it drizzles," Joushima replied.

"Thanks for everything. Wish me luck, Himeko out," the racer said, ending the test transmission.

"There's nothing more we can do for her, Jou-chan," Kozo said as he patted Joushima's shoulder.

"Yeah. You and the mechanics did your best, me and my wife did our best, even the kid did his best," Joushima said with a smile. "It's in her hands now."

…

Himeko steeled herself in concentration. The race is starting proper, and while she had a good position from the fourth position on the grid, the opponents in front of her will definitely never make the race easy.

Sitting in pole position was Yuji Kishida of team number 111, or the 'Snake Eyes' as the paddock people put it. He has demonstrated that his name is not to be trifled with. Even though the young man is as green as most of the racers starting on the grid, his excellent pit crew and experience with high-speed Wangan courses gave him a great edge over most of the other competitors.

Just behind him, Tomoyuki Tachi of Todo Juku Racing sat with the machine in alert idle. The man was not much older than Himeko, but she wouldn't dare to underestimate him. One does not just waltz in and stole the top time of a course described by her team-leader as 'bloody cramped difficult turns'. It must have taken him talent, ability, and months if not years of constant practice. With such amount of accumulated hard work, Himeko wouldn't dream of tackling the man head-on. The amateur girl racer could only hope that some sort of windfall.

Directly in front of him was a foreigner by the name of Larry Faulkner. The enigmatic foreigner of the Garm Team practically stole the spotlight overnight, popping out from nowhere and getting the third position on grid. No meaningful info can ultimately be gleaned from him, save for pieces of official information that he only went to race with his 'buddy', armed with an '89 model first-production Roadster. There's also the fact that Larry only got to the third grid by besting Himeko's time by about a fifth of a second, signifying that his skill level is about the same with her.

However, it's not only the front row that threatens her bid for the title. Right behind her was arguably the strongest female contender for the title, Akemi Homura of Team Mitaki. Himeko only won her fourth grid against Akemi with a very slight advantage; either of them could have ended in either of the third to fifth grid positions. However, since that the qualifier incident Himeko has been putting her guards up. Akemi is a woman on a mission, just like Himeko; what her mission is, she would not know.

Himeko allows herself the luxury of blinking, just a moment before all the light shone green.

The race is on.

…

"And they're off!" an exuberant Reina said a few moments after the light shone green. "_**It's a great start don't you think Larkson-san?**_"

"_**Hmm! The front grid seems to be evenly matched with the rest, this will be an interesting race to see,**_" Larkson replied, grinning towards the camera. "_**And we'll be waiting for the inevitable first turn crash!**_"

"Ah… aheheh," Reina replied nervously, unsure on how to translate the quip. "What would you think about the race, Tsuchiya-san?"

"Well, if profiles are right we would be having a great race here," Tsuchiya commented, holding the profile sheet on his hands. "We have some potential young newcomers into the fray, like this Akemi Homura. Since the Nishi-Nihon race she has been advancing full-throttle and claiming two podium finishes."

"_**Akemi Homura is a very talented racer, having two podium finishes under her belt already,**_" Reina translated for Larkson to follow. "_**Surely she has the best chance of winning don't you think?**_"

…

The sheer din of roaring engines nearly overwhelmed Himeko. _Move, move, move!_ Himeko mentally urged her body as fellow racers seem to surge on her position. There is no time to turn her head; no time to care for Akemi or Larry's position, her vision slightly tunneled by the rushing cars and adrenaline.

A few seconds after the initial surge, Himeko's mind was doing its best to process the best path through the stampede, with so many back-row cars surging to the front and jockeying for position before the first hairpin. Akemi's gunmetal grey 313 was on her front immediately, despite the fifth position being almost a car length's distance away. Feeling that her tires would not be warm enough for aggressive driving, Himeko eased off and tried a line that isn't too crowded, but it has cost her a few places and she was now trailing a bit behind the main crowd.

Then, the inevitable happened.

…

"_**That's what I'm talking about! Bloody hilarious!**_" Larkson guffawed as the less-able cars plunged into the gravel, kicking up a sizable dust cloud. "_**They all walked right into the trap!**_"

"_**Uhh… well, F1 drivers do that a lot too, Larkson-san…**_" Reina replied a little sheepishly.

"_**Never gets old, though**_," Larkson replied. "_**Now let's see here… Pole keeps his position, but fourth slides back to eight.**_"

"_**That is car number 124,**_" Reina helpfully pointed out. "_**Himeko Shinohara is behind the wheel.**_"

"I admit 124's driver intrigues me the most," Tsuchiya commented. "She emerges from practically nowhere and snatched fourth place, a respectable feat. Even Homura was not that stellar in his first appearance four races ago."

"Perhaps it's natural talent?" Reina said, holding back from telling the other two of Himeko's true condition. "Some people are gifted with good hand-eye coordination and such…"

…

"Whoa!" Akio exclaimed as he spotted a dust cloud in the middle of the first hairpin turn.

"Oh my God!" Ayako exclaimed, jolting up from her chair. "Is it a crash?"

"It might be…" Akio said, bringing a binocular to his eyes. "It seems like some cars have gone off-road, too… I can't see Himeko-nee…"

"Could it be… Himeko went out of the road too?" Toushirou said, holding to his own opera binoculars.

"I don't know…" Akio muttered. "The viewing angle's quite bad from here…"

…

"Mother of-" Himeko cursed as a few car in front of her kicked up some dust from entering the gravel.

"Girl! You okay out there?" Kozo said through the radio, concerned.

"Been worse," Himeko replied hotly, trying to evade a car going wide from the inner lane. "But this one's pretty close!"

"Keep calm, take the corner slower if you need to," Kozo went on. "Don't let your tire get gravel or debris, we can't risk a puncture at this stage."

"It's easy for you to say, Chief!" Himeko shot back, evading another veering car at the later part of the hairpin.

"The way should clear out at the end of the hairpin, and then we'd know who we're up against," Kozo said. "So, are you out of the hairpin yet?"

"Yeah, I'm out in one piece. I think 961 is in front of me, and several others in front of him. Homura is up there somewhere. I don't know where Faulkner went…" Himeko rattled as she struggled to follow said 961 into the S-bend.

"You're at 8th place now," Kozo said, reading a note passed to him by Joushima. "In front of you are… cars 961, 765, 876, 662, 313, 111, and 123."

"Gee, I'm rather outclassed here," Himeko said, sticking close to 961's line as she tries to pull her car to a side-by-side. "662 is Faulkner, was it?"

"Yup. 961 is Hokuto Ijuuin, 765 is Makoto Kikuchi, and 876 is Ryo Akizuki," Kozo said, listing the race participants by position. "They're all pretty close to you, all under four seconds. Faulkner and Homura are both within nine seconds from you, while Tachi and Kishida are around eighteen seconds."

"I need to break off from this pack, huh… no problem, no problem," Himeko said lightly. "Let's see if I can overtake Ijuuin in this hairpin…"

"Don't burden your tires so much. Remember, your tires and extra weight make you a bit slower than a lot of people at the pitch," Kozo advised.

"Alright, Chief. But this 961 guy is really quite slow..." Himeko said. "Let me try…"

…

"Is she okay?" the concerned mother said, while Akio wraps up a short phone conversation with Joushima.

"She's okay, and she is trying to make up for lost time," Akio said, sighing in relief. "Chief thinks that she is locked in a four-way battle around the third hairpin…"

"Sounds fierce," Toushirou commented. "I wonder if her body can take it…"

"It's natural to worry oji-san," Akio said. "But I have faith in dr. Joushima's therapy. I can safely say that she will try her hardest to last the entire race."

"It reminds me of Himeko's first year of sickness," Ayako remarked, staring fondly towards the long corner. "She was very frail. All the irradiation and chemotherapy literally ate away her body."

"Oh yeah, we remembered that," Toushirou added, holding his wife's hand. "She was nothing but skin and bones. She locks herself in her own room every day, only coming out for an occasional meal."

"Chihiro used to talk a lot about those times," Kotomine said a few words of her own. "She felt that Himeko was needlessly lamenting for something beyond her control."

…

_Chief is right_, Himeko thought as she blocked the way for the 961 car, preventing the car from overtaking. In the short meantime that she was out of radio contact, she had managed to overtake the black car. _Keeping this position is something else entirely_, the female driver grunted as the long straight-away comes to an end and opens to the long right-hand corner.

"Let's do this…" Himeko said as she took the corner faster than she usually would, risking the gravel in hopes of catching some lost time.

And so, the cars danced. The two cars in front of Himeko took the more conservative line, reducing their speed more to keep them on track, while Himeko took a more daring route. Instead of braking gradually like she used to, she let her car coast without accelerating while she turned. Her effort bore fruit as she was able to take both of her opponents at the same time.

…

"_**Lap one is just about to end and we're already treated to this awesome spectacle!**_" Larkson exclaimed, pointing to the monitor. "_**Car 124 is back in the game!**_"

"_**Oo, you're right, Larkson-san!**_" Reina replied, also looking at the monitor. "124 has succeeded in overtaking two cars at once! I guess you're right on the money, Tsuchiya-san!"

"Very brilliant strategy in Shinohara-san's part," Tsuchiya said. "By braking less in the entry, she can use her car's greater momentum to carry her through the turn faster. While Homura-san has had more success in the past, Shinohara-san definitely has an edge here in this circuit."

"_**Apparently our heroine used less braking to carry her car faster through the corner, Larkson-san!**_" Reina deftly translated Tsuchiya's words for Larkson. "_**An ingenious strategy!**_"

"_**Indeed. Her control must have been a cut above the other racers, because most of them are rubbish**_," Larkson said, giving stress on the last word. "_**The way I see it, only 662 and 123 have better control compared to 124 while 111 and 313's control seemed to be around the same caliber.**_"

"Such a good control! To think that this is her first race!" Reina commented.

…

A lone girl walked by, having finished her weekly examination. Her tote bag was missing a button, so she clutched it in her arms instead of holding it by the handle. People went buzzing about, the time indicating that it's a little before eleven. There were even some patients, the girl noted due to their peculiar gowns and rubber wristbands. _That green bracelet from the gastrointestinal section_, the girl thought as a middle-aged lady stopped by a food stall to buy something. _She must be bored with the food._

The only thing that piqued her interest was a small crowd of mostly nurses around the television set nearest to the nurse's station. The girl was a good distance apart from the TV, so she can't figure out what's on. _Peculiar,_ _but not really unexpected_, the girl thought.

"Oh, isn't it Setsumi-san!" A nurse waved to the girl.

"Nami…-san?" the little girl replied as she approached the nurse. Apparently the patient knew the nurse from her days in and out of the hospital. "Why are you crowding the TV?"

"Oh, someone we all knew is competing in today's RoadSpec car race in Tsukuba!" Nami enthusiastically said. "And boy is she good!"

"Oh, best luck to her, I guess," Setsumi said, feigning interest.

"To think that just last month she was still in the seventh floor!" Nami went on. "It's literally unheard of! The doctors are in an uproar, and some who are free are now watching the race from the doctor's lounge!"

Setsumi's thought process halted for that string of Nami's sentences. For all of her familiarity with this hospital and its intricacies, the frail-looking petite was genuinely taken by surprise. The seventh floor was reserved as a palliative care ward, and generally people in that ward don't go out freely again, much less race in a car.

"Seventh floor…" Setsumi said in a soft, almost whispering sound. "Isn't that the hospice ward for the terminally-ill patients?"

"Yup. I know her, too. She's Himeko Shinohara, one of the younger ones," Nami said "It makes the whole thing all the more amazing."

"I… wonder if you'll allow me to watch the race with you all," Setsumi asked.

"Sure! It's a public TV after all," Nami said as she pointed to a row of chairs nearby. Some off-duty nurses had been sitting there since the race. "Oh yeah, won't your mother be worried? Here, let me call her in your stead."

"If… it's not too much of a bother, then please," Setsumi said as she reached inside her bag for a small card containing numbers to call in emergencies. Nami accepted the proffered card before walking to a nearby payphone, while Setsumi sat on a chair paying full attention to the television set.

_I… wanted to know what drives her to do such a risky gamble_, the little ill girl thought.

…

"_**With eight of fifteen laps behind us, we can see that the positions have stabilized! Have you any comments on this, Larkson-san?**_" Reina said, turning to Larkson as she eyed the current standings of the race.

"_**Well, we are now entering the boring phase of the race, I admit. Nothing is really happening in the front row since 111 took back his place in lap four and 662 overtook 313 two laps ago**_," Larkson said. "_**The gap between 124 and the next car, 313, is stable at a staggering thirty-five seconds. 313's driving has been a bit choppy, but her team sure done a number with that tires!**_"

"Tires seem to be Homura's main weapon for the time being, Tsuchiya-san!" Reina deftly translated for the other commentator.

"Yes, Akikawa-san, but more remarkable still that racer Shinohara can even out the competition through sheer force of skill alone! From the racing documents we can see that Shinohara had equipped softer intermediate tires," Tsuchiya said, patting a sheaf of paper for emphasis. "By all means, an intermediate would lag quite a bit against the harder dry tires Akemi is equipping. Yet look at her, her gap has only widened by less than three seconds over the course of the race so far!"

"She managed to cling to hope… such a force of will!" Reina added.

…

"Himeko, do you copy," Joushima called over the radio. "How are you feeling, girl?"

"Pretty good, doctor," the racer replied as she sailed over the quick one-two section before the second hairpin. "No symptoms, just feeling the exertion."

"Alright, if you say so," Joushima said. "How is it down there?"

"Pretty lonely since the peanut gallery decided they can't keep up to my mighty skill," the racer said. "The next car is… I don't know, maybe a few hundred meters away? I can't see it from here."

"The latest data says that Homura is a little over twenty-three seconds in front of you," Joushima said. "I'd say keep your pace and finish the race, we'll be more than happy with that."

"And let the girl walk away without a fight? Never!" Himeko mock-shouted. "The Stig shall not fall here!"

"All right, do your best," the elderly man replied, chuckling. "We'll support you either way."

"Hey, Jou-chan, is our racer on the line?" Kozo asked as he walked in from the paddock front.

"I was just talking to her, what's up?" Joushima replied.

"The workshop just rang me, and guess what," Kozo said, a small smile on his lips.

"It rained there?" Joushima guessed.

"Yup. And it's quite hard," Kozo said. "The chances of a rain here just got higher."

"I hear chatter there, doc! What's up?" Himeko asked from across the radio.

"Team chief thinks that we're probably having some rain soon," Joushima answered the question. "We might get the windfall we're waiting for, but keep it tight. There's still a chance that this wind will blow the rain away."

"Ooh, nifty," Hemeko said, chuckling. "I'll be sure to remember that!"

…

"The wind is getting cooler," Kotomine noted. "I think it's going to rain soon."

"It may be so. It's been cloudy for the whole day now," Akio said, gazing to the sky.

"Oh dear. It's only getting more dangerous, isn't it?" Ayako asked, her face showing concern.

"That's actually the trump card we're banking on, Ayako-basan," Akio explained. "Since there will be no pit stop or emergency tire change in this race, people will be stuck on using one set of tires for the whole race. Most of the teams would be using the dry tires, which is the fastest tires… however, if it suddenly rained in the race, this alone will turn the tables on them because dry tires are pretty hard to control in wet asphalt. We're still praying that the rains don't stop the race, though."

"So you're saying that Himeko's tires won't make the car hard to control when it's wet?" Toushirou asked.

"Umm… maybe 'won't be as hard' will be a better way to say it, Toushirou-jisan. It will still be hard work controlling the car in rainy conditions," Akio replied. "We were using intermediate compound tires, which is actually the halfway between dry and wet tires. This means, though it won't perform as good as dry tires in a dry condition, it will perform better than dry tires in wet conditions though wet tires will still outperform it."

"Wow… I didn't know racing could get that complicated…" Kotomine mused.

"Me too, actually," Akio said, chuckling. "Himeko and the chiefs berated me in day one for not knowing that…"

…

"Himeko, do you read me?" Joushima spoke to the racer. The racer is rounding the longest corner of the circuit, seconds away from entering the tenth lap.

"Yeah, doc, I hear you…" Himeko replied, her mouth forming a grin as drops of water started hitting her windshield. "It's the rain…"

"Stay calm and keep your pace. Don't push it yet," Joushima said, gazing towards the sky. "The rain isn't heavy, too. It will be… probably a lap or two before the circuit becomes wet enough for your tires to make a difference."

"Who's bringing wet tires like us, doc?" Himeko asked as she braked in preparation of entering the first corner.

"I can't tell, really. We're not given the race-day load-out of the other teams… I can safely say that the garage to our left and right are using dry tires," Joushima answered after scanning a few lines in the starting data. "I guess we'll have to wait and see."

"Alright doc," the racer said as she came out of the gentle turn.

…

The patter of rain started to make its distinct noise on the grandstands' metal roofing as the spectators' buzzing got louder. The conditions have changed drastically, but one thing is certain. The race has just turned more interesting.

In the middle of the uncertain stares and his own family's apprehension, a young man cracked a smile.

"Go get them, Himeko-nee," the smiling Akio said softly.

* * *

**A/N**: Well, after a full year (and three months, more or less) of toils, I bring you the latest chapter of this fic. The race is on, and most of the chapter deals with the boring parts of the race. Lots of things happen in the meantime… but my love to this fic endures. I will see the completion of this fic, and that is my promise. Also, I amended the summary for the (unforeseen, really) inclusion of Setsumi!

29/3/2013: I revised some continuity kinks.

17/4/2013: revised some overly non-indicative parts.


	10. Victory

DISCLAIMER:

All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki, Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts are in _italic_. Since a few characters are speaking in English and this fic is set in the same language (while in actuality almost all of the characters spoke in Japanese), I decided to render the spoken English in _**bold-italic**_.

* * *

_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Chapter 9: Victory_

* * *

"And what a turnover we're witnessing today!" Reina announced enthusiastically. "The weather has turned for the worse! It has rained on the track!"

"Really, the rain must've been itching to fall," Tsuchiya said, looking to the track. "This rain might have been the break some racers had been waiting for, especially those with intermediate tires."

"_**The playing field has just changed, Larkson-san! People using the intermediate tires are sure to get some advantage!**_" Reina translated to the British man.

"_**Yes, indeed,**_" the British man said in an even tone. "_**People who proofed their tires too much will be in for a difficult time with all the aquaplaning just waiting to happen.**_"[30]

"_**So it will be a battle of finesse rather than speed, right?**_" Reina guessed.

"_**Of a fashion,**_" Larkson replied. "_**However, since it just started to rain and the rain is fairly light so far, dry tires are still very much in the game. The difference won't really kick in for a lap or so.**_"

…

Yuji Kishida was a little terrified. Of all the conditions he had been faced, rain was the one he dreaded the most. His Wangan runs are all in dry condition; that run was suicidal enough in the dry, and it would be nothing short of a morbid death sentence in the wet. As such, the youngster had practically zero experience of driving in the rain, and it really shows. Over the past lap, he has slid more than he would want to, and it took a toll on his time he's sure.

"Base to Yuji, base to Yuji, do you read me?" a male voice sounded in Yuji's radio.

"G-go ahead, base," Yuji replied, a little stutter in his voice.

"Keep it calm, Yuji. No need to get riled up," the male voice said. "You're a Wangan-bred racer. You're used to running your vehicle at much higher speed and less grip. You can do this, Yuji."

"R-right…" Yuji replied. "Any idea how it is behind me?"

"Car 123, 662, and 124 are all upping their pace, and now it's pretty clear that they have rain tires since the beginning. 123 in particular, his gap with you just got smaller by two seconds," the man said, chuckling a little. "We seem to be in the same boat with 313, because she's being chased by the faster 124. Looks like a catfight is going to break out soon, heheheh."

"Crazy…" Yuji mouthed out. "That girl… is gaining on Homura? Unbelievable."

"You seem to be quite taken by 124's driver," the voice across the line said.

"Yeah… did I tell you about her, Kazuhiko-san?" Yuji asked as he went out of the third hairpin and into the main straight.

"Can't say I had heard, you must have forgotten," Kazuhiko replied.

"She… has terminal cancer," Yuji finally said, and a heavy silence quickly closed the time gap for a few seconds.

"She's still a racer, Yuji," Kazuhiko replied after Yuji settled in the main straight. "She knew what the job is entitled to, and what she is entitled to receive… handing the win to her would offend her, much more so now that you knew about her illness. That's why F1 drivers hate the so-called team order."

…

"Base to Himeko, do you read me girl?" Kozo said through the radio. The racer in question has just finished the tenth lap, and she is already gaining five seconds back from Homura's lead.

"Loud and clear, chief!" the girl replied. "No symptoms!"

"I'm not Jou-chan, sheesh," the slightly rotund man replied, chuckling. "You started pushing for your lead, I guess? You're faster by a whole six seconds since the last lap. The rain's still pretty sparse, I think it's a bit too early."

"Really? I thought it would be the perfect time…" Himeko said with a little bewilderment in her voice.

"Pushing the tires too early will wear them faster, naturally. Now we can only hope your tires lasts until finish," Kozo said, his tone scolding a little.

"Aww…" Himeko replied. "Mach 5 will get to the finish line, ain't it buddy? ...See, he said it's no problem!"

"Hahaha! That's what I like the most from you, girl!" Kozo said. "Take her to the finish and we'll still have that party!"

"Roger, chief!" Himeko replied.

…

Akemi Homura grunted. Her vehicle has been sliding more often as the asphalt moistened to the rain. While she can still keep her pace, her time is sure to suffer. What's more, her rival Himeko Shinohara seemed to paradoxically up her pace. She was sure that she left her way back just a few laps ago… but now, the flashes of red has been appearing on her rear-view mirror more often than she would have liked.

"Homerun to base, come in base," the racer spoke to her radio.

"You're in, loud and clear Akemi-neechan!" an exuberant female voice replied.

"What's my time in the last lap, Madoka?" Akemi asked.

"Umm, let's see…" the girl named Madoka replied after a pause. "Un, you're slower by around three seconds compared to the lap before, and around six seconds compared to your fastest today, Akemi-neechan!"

"As I thought…" Akemi said. "Damn this rain…"

"Don't say we haven't warned you," a male voice took over from Madoka. "The forecast gave ample warning for rain, yet you stubbornly chose to run with dry tires."

"T-tatsuya! You shouldn't be up yet!" Akemi replied, loss of concentration nearly driving her to the gravel.

"Nonsense. My concussion's all gone. The doctor said that today I'm perfectly fine aside of my broken carpal… well, there's also that 'don't do heavy lifting' stuff but I'm sure operating the radio doesn't count," Tatsuya replied. "Don't worry about me too much. Worry more about yourself."

"B-but…" Akemi said, a certain softness can be felt in her steadying tone.

"Well then, try to take more forgiving lines and brake more," Tatsuya went on. "Since this is a no-pit race, you're in for a hell of a ride."

"Will do," Akemi replied with all her cool confidence restored, taking her car through the second hairpin.

…

"_**The rain is really shaking things up in here, Larkson-san! There's overtaking action across the board!**_" Reina said enthusiastically in English. "_**However, the stewards just reported that the rain has grown heavier by the minute, and they are considering a red flag if it affects visibility too much.**_"

"_**It will be such a shame if the red flag is waved, because boy do we have a splendid race going here!**_" Larkson said, pointing to a monitor screen. "_**I mean, look at it, it is a properly good rain race! For one, 124 had managed to win back from a staggering twenty nine seconds' gap in the space of two laps! It's simply unbelievable! Where has she been? She could easily be a pro team's talent of the year!**_"

"Do you hear that, Tsuchiya-san? Twenty nine seconds in the space of two laps is simply unbelievable!" Reina translated for Tsuchiya. "That sort of talent is one in ten thousand, don't you think?"

"I can agree with you there, Reina-san," Tsuchiya commented. "The way she took her corners is really good, as well as how she would accelerate. This girl is going places after this race, I'm sure of it."

"My sources say that her team is joined by two local legends as advisors, Kozo Hoshino and Toshiya Joushima," Reina said. "I'd say she's in really good hands."

"Kozo Hoshino and Toshiya Joushima, eh… I heard of their touge prowess. Only Kozo had raced professionally before, and I believe he stopped because he had to take over his father's tire business after Hoshino senior died," Tsuchiya explained. "I only raced him maybe once or twice, very early in my career, but I can say that one of his strong points was great acceleration control."

"_**Miss Shinohara seemed to have learned from a good teacher, Larkson-san! Her teacher Kozo Hoshino was, at one time, a professional racer and he is reputed to have great acceleration control,**_" Reina summarized for the foreigner.

"_**Well, that explains how she got that smooth acceleration control. It can be hard to see without live telemetry data if you don't got trained eyes, but it's there,**_" Larkson said, observing as the red car finally came within three car-lengths from the grey one. "_**Ooh, here we go! 124 and 313 has just lined up! This is the moment we're all waiting for, folks!**_"

…

"Himeko, do you read me, Himeko," Joushima said over the radio.

"Loud and clear, doc!" Himeko replied, her car lined up on position, ready to pounce the slightest chance. "I've got an annoying grey car in front of me here, and boy do I want to pass it!"

"You sound pretty healthy, then," the doctor said, chuckling. "Be careful, Himeko. Keep your calm and remember the strategy. Just stay as close as you safely can and take the chance when it presents itself."

"Oh, yeah doc… is Akio there?" the racer asked before negotiating a quick left-right bend before entering the second hairpin, still hot on her rival's tail.

"No, he's still up there in the grandstands with your family," Joushima said. "Kozo is trying to call him, but no luck thus far with the crowded airwaves."

"I see…" Himeko said, her car accelerating out of the second hairpin.

"Go get her, girl!" Joushima said in an encouraging tone.

"This is it!" Himeko interjected to the radio. "Who dares wins!"

…

"Hmm~ it's quite a pouring day out there…" an elderly man dressed in hospital gowns remarked as he gazed outside the seventh floor window. "Say Chihiro-chan, will you turn the TV on?"

"Sure, Koenji-san," Chihiro smiled warmly as she turned the television on with a remote control. "Let's see the program here now…"

There was a slight mix of noise as Chihiro surfed through the channels. _There are no good shows_, the young girl thought as she skipped a nature documentary. _I wonder if they are having fun…_

"Aah, isn't that a thing to watch. Let's watch that one," the old man said, snapping Chihiro from her reverie.

"Oh, sure…" Chihiro said, before stopping her channel-surf.

"Been awhile since the last race, huh…" Koenji said. "I wonder if Himeko is there, racing enthusiast that she is. She's been out quite long, didn't sh- sweet mother of mercy!"

"E-eh?" Chihiro mouthed, before turning her attention to the television.

True enough, the screen showed her a red Roadster, one she knew so much. That one car, the car her sister loved so much to the point of obsession. It is dashing through the rain, trying to catch its rival unaware.

On the ticker, Chihiro can see the name of the driver, Himeko Shinohara.

…

The two cars sped through the gentler corners, lining up for the third hairpin turn. Himeko's car is better adapted for rain and faster, but Akemi's newer Roadster had better components and was better maintained. The stage is set.

"She's not yielding…" Akemi muttered.

Humans are creatures of habit, and Akemi Homura is no exception. On entering the hairpin, she tried to make a quick feint by causing her car's tail to throw slightly outwards, startling the car on her outside lane close behind. Normally this will startle Himeko, throwing her concentration off and potentially causing her to botch her overtaking attempt. However, that turn of events wasn't meant to be.

"Motherf-" Akemi cursed. In the heat of the moment, she had forgotten to account for the rain. Her tail slid out much more than expected, taking the whole body wider and costing Akemi her optimal line. Himeko grinned, because this is the break she had been waiting for.

"Who dares, wins!" Himeko shouted, her car diving as close as possible to the apex of the corner, exploiting Akemi's slip to the fullest it can.

"No! I will not yield!" Akemi screamed, trying to bring herself back in line and correct the mistake.

Akemi's monumental effort to control her car reduced the effect of the slip, bringing her back in the game. The car went side-by-side for a short moment, but Himeko's better line brought her half a car's advantage coming out of the turn. The battle continues as they sped nearly side-by-side as they whittle away the distance in the main straight, neither getting a definite lead over the other due to the added weight of the newer Roadsters, making the added horsepower moot.

Entering the long last corner, Akemi was forced to slow down more as not to jeopardize her safety. Her proofed tires cannot go any faster safely, and the fact was not lost to Himeko. Determined to finish the deed she started in the last hairpin, Himeko again coasted through the corner with as little braking as she can manage. Letting momentum carry her red Roadster through faster, Himeko finally sighed in relief as she saw a last glimpse of gunmetal grey slipping from her periphery vision.

"No…" Akemi whispered as she witnessed the red car pulling in front of her, before speeding away into the pit straight.

The red car, undaunted by anything, lanced through the pit straight with full speed.

…

"She did it!" Akio shouted, standing on his feet pumping both fists on the air. "Himeko-nee did it!"

"My Lord!" Kotomine added, hands on air in elation. "This is a miracle!"

A deafening roar echoed through the grandstands, with many of the spectators shouting and applauding in delight as the red car numbered 124 raced through the pit straight. They too had just witnessed the fierce battle for the fourth place, a spectacle thoroughly tracked by the cameras mounted on that side of the track.

"Did you see that, dear?" Toushirou said, his fond gaze directed to the monitor displaying his daughter's action just a scant minute ago.

"Y-yes…" Ayako answered between little sobs.

"She… might not turn out like we planned…" the proud father said, hugging his wife. "But she made us proud nonetheless…"

…

"_**She did it!**_" Larkson all but screamed to the microphone as he stood, arms over his head. "_**That crazy girl did it!**_"

"She had done it…" Reina mumbled for a short while, disbelief thick in her voice.

"What a marvelous pass from car number 124, folks!" Tsuchiya hollered. "What a sight to behold!"

"_**Absolutely marvelous**_," Larkson added, not caring that Reina is having difficulties choosing the words for her translation. "_**You don't get that kind of action every raceday, folks!**_"

"_**W-well yeah!**_" Reina finally managed to overcome her speechlessness. "_**We're in the last legs of the race, and the action is just getting hotter!**_"

"_**I'm now convinced that the people who bought the tickets are well-compensated,**_" the British motorsport journalist said. "_**It's three laps left and I'm sure everyone is on the edge of their seats! The winner of this race can still be anyone in the front row!**_"

"_**Yes! Who's your personal favorite, Larkson-san?**_" the presenter asked.

"_**Mm… I'd say that I have to pick Miss 124 from the five front runners,**_" Larkson said. "_**Her driving, while not the best down there, it is definitely the most… soulful one. 662 and 123 is definitely better from a technical standpoint, 111 is the naïve little kid who just happen to get pole, while 313 is the most devious one, but they seem to just… lacking something. Do you understand?**_"

"_**Absolutely, sir! Miss Shinohara is just so good to watch right?**_" Reina said. "Larkson-san said his favorite driver is Shinohara-san! How about you, Tsuchiya-san?"

"Well… I suppose I'd play devil's advocate and pick Tachi-san in number 123," Tsuchiya said. "His driving is absolutely flawless and a real mark of a talented driver. His lines could use some variation but it's overall very good. I guess it's fairly natural since his team is a racing school team."

"I see… well I hate being a tiebreaker but I must say that Shinohara-san is my favorite. I took part in funding her… and she's a brilliant example of human spirit," the presenter said. "_**She… also has stage four terminal cancer and is formerly a hospice patient.**_"

…

A loud cheer erupted in the hospital as the TV showed Himeko's red Roadster darting past the grey one, as onlookers learn of the nature of the little spectacle. The nurses had known of Himeko Shinohara and her slightly weird but not wholly-unexpected antics, thus putting her as their home-grown champion. Joining onlookers were regaled with tales of the girl's misadventures, including that one time she tried to prove that pineapples grow on the so-called pineapple trees.

Another ill girl, her body frail and ravaged by illness, sat in awed silence. Not only does Himeko Shinohara raced out there, she raced to win. Setsumi was not a motorsports enthusiast, but even she could fathom that this is a culmination of hard work and energy Himeko Shinohara would have lacked in the first place.

"How… does this is even possible…?" Setsumi whispered, a hundred thought processes trying to find a logic justification to this event.

Of such justification, she has none.

…

"_**Yo, buddy,**_" the foreigner racer, Larry Faulkner, spoke to his radio. "_**Still alive? You went silent for a long bit there.**_"

"_**Apparently 124 is closing up on you, Larry**_," a female voice said. "_**She just got past 313, and their battle was pretty fierce.**_"

"_**Fuu~ I guess I should be careful from now on, huh?**_" the man said, whistling a low whistle. "_**Where's that first racer when you need him.**_"

"_**Larry, you…**_" the woman mumbled.

"_**Hey hey, let's try to be focused now Kei**_," the mid-forties man said. "_**We all know that the crash was Chip's own fault. No use getting all worked up.**_"

"…_**Yeah**_," the woman named Kei said. "_**Oh, and before I forgot, I think 124 just exited the first hairpin… and quite fast, too.**_"

"_**That's just two turns behind me- ouch!**_" Larry said, the momentary lapse of concentration causing him to hit the raised inner berm of the second hairpin and sending him wide. "_**Jeezus Kei, should have told me that a little earlier, don't you buddy!**_"

"_**Sorry, too busy moping on Chip,**_" Kei shot back, her tone a little more playful.

…

"Base to Himeko, come in girl," Joushima said over the radio. "That was good performance, great job."

"Thanks doc," Himeko replied, taking a deep breath. "I think I'm gaining over our foreigner… but he's quite a long bit out there."

"A little over eleven seconds, yes. Tomoyuki and Yuji are twelve seconds beyond that," the middle-aged doctor said, reading off the provided monitor. "Felt anything bad?"

"Not really, but my heart won't stop beating hard, doc," the racer replied. "Should I start worrying?"

"I don't think so," Joushima said. "I think it's just adrenaline rush pushing your body to its limits. We'll see after the race, if it's not subsiding then we'll stop by the hospital before celebrating."

"Aww… but I want to spray champagne on you people first," Himeko mock-pouted.

"Don't worry, we're keeping it cold for you," the doctor said. "Now go out there to win your victory."

"Roger that," Himeko said, chuckling.

…

Tomoyuki Tachi is a man on a mission, just like every other racer on track today. With hawkish precision, the second-oldest racer on the front five tailed Yuji's dark green Roadster just in front of him. Tomoyuki's intermediate tires are carrying him through well, plus he has plenty of experience racing in wet conditions.

"Really, Yuji…" the mountain pass racer said to himself. "You shouldn't be as bad as this in rain races…"

Entering the third hairpin, Tomoyuki can see how bad the problem is. Instead of taking the line he had taken in the previous laps, Yuji had opted to follow a wider line around the hairpin. And even with the line, Tomoyuki can spot the lack of grip hurting the youngster's time. Faced with such bumbling yet stubborn resistance, the older racer chose to hang back and wait for a better chance.

"Base to Tachi, come in," a voice sounded in Tomoyuki's radio.

"Come in base, heard you loud and clear," Tachi said into the mouthpiece. "What's it like behind me?"

"124 passed 313 coming into the pit straight, and now she is hot on 662's tail," the man across the radio said.

"Whoa, she's good…" the racer said. "That pace is quite high…"

"Almost as good as you and that foreigner," the man across the connection said. "We should definitely get her signed."

"There you go again, chief," the mountain pass racer said, chuckling. "She won't last. I told you about her illness, right?"

"Yeah. I let my scout side out for a second there," the man on the radio said as he chuckled. "Anyway, keep up what you're doing and you'll pass Yuji in a few, I think."

"She's like fine fireworks…" Tomoyuki said softly, now seizing the opportunity on making a pass as Yuji made a grave mistake and drifted far out of the optimum line for the long corner. "Blooming beautifully for just that instant when it matters…"

…

"_**That… I…**_" Larkson said, slack-jawed from realization. "_**…I don't know what to say.**_"

"That… then, she has stage four terminal cancer…?" Tsuchiya managed to say.

"_**Yes. I had the pleasure of meeting her before the race**_," Reina said in a solemn tone. "It was the whole nine yards… a private nurse, a standby doctor, and such. But there's that spirit… that glint in her eyes that refuses to die when told to. _**That spirit was what really shown me that my decision of funding her was right.**_"

There were a few moments of silence as the commentators took in what Reina said. The concerned director has signaled for a commercial break, but Reina signed back telling that it won't be necessary.

"_**Let us get back to the matters on hand, shall we?**_" Reina said, trying to lift the mood up. "_**While we're moping, things are happening! 123 had taken the lead from 111, while 124 and 662 is battling for third place!**_"

"Can we get a replay on contestant Tachi's pass, please?" Tsuchiya added. "Ah, yes… the lack of grip is really hurting contestant Kishida there. The better-equipped Tachi is bound to have done it any way he liked. No contest at all."

…

"_**So we're going to do this huh…**_" the foreigner said, glancing to his rear-view mirror. The red Roadster is now half a car behind him, trailing closely.

In a procession, they entered the third hairpin. Since Faulkner didn't want to make a blunder like what Akemi did in the last lap, he played it safe and did the corner with precision. Himeko took a slightly tighter line but gained no significant progress.

"_**You know… there are three kinds of racers,**_" the foreigner said to nobody in particular as his car shot out of the hairpin. "_**Those who seek strength… those who live for pride… and those who can read the tide of the race…**_"

The two racers exited to the main straight, keeping their feet jammed to the floor in an effort to squeeze out as much power as they can before they have to brake entering the long corner. Their similar speed meant that there was no overtaking done in the main straight. Entering the long corner, Himeko tried to get the inner lane of the track but Faulkner was already there. They drove along the corner almost bumper-to-bumper, exiting into the pit straight in the same succession.

"_**Now which racer are you, lady…?**_" the male racer further said, chuckling. "_**Because he… he was a true ace.**_"

"… _**You alright in there, Larry?**_" Kei asked through the radio. Evidently, she had listened in on the whole thing and is a bit stumped.

"_**Hm? Oh yeah, I'm just having the usual monolo-**_" the foreigner said, before changing his intended reply with an interrupted cussword. "_**Sunuva-**_"

Sometimes, a moment's distraction was all it takes.

Entering the first hairpin, the distraction caused by Kei made Larry overshot the optimal line, resulting in the navy-blue car going wide. Himeko, not wanting to waste the opportunity, took the inner line and managed to close in by half a car going out of the corner. With the car almost side-by-side, the two racers exited the first hairpin. They were summarily side-by-side through the quick left-right section by the time they enter the second hairpin.

However, because of the way they are positioned exiting the hairpin, Himeko was now on the outer side of the turn in addition to being half a car behind. As the cars enter the second hairpin, Himeko quickly dived into the inner side of the turn, letting her car climb the raised inner berm and corner faster. This netted her some advantage, as the two cars are now perfectly side-by-side.

…

Chihiro was sitting silently before the television set, her hands covering her mouth in awe mixed with disbelief. The TV set was displaying the red Roadster side-by-side with a navy blue one, about to enter a turn. _I'm no motorsport enthusiast like Sis, but the way the two car moves… it's almost like the two are… dancing,_ the girl thought.

"Is that really your sister racing out there, Chihiro?" Koenji asked, patting the young lady's shoulder.

"Y-yes…" Chihiro replies, little sobs starting to distort her words. "My parents were supposed to take me there to watch the race, but…"

"It doesn't matter," The middle-aged man with the frail appearance said in a soothing tone. "They say everywhere you pray for anything, The Lord listens."

"Y-yes…" Chihiro said.

"So let's pray for her victory, then," Koenji said, smiling. "Pray for her victory and safe return."

So, Chihiro joined her hands in silent prayer. With eyes closed, her lips whispered a wish.

"Onee-san… please win…! And come back…!"

…

Exiting the corner, the two cars sped through the short section before the seventh corner, an almost ninety-degree right turn. While Himeko has succeeded in putting her car side-by-side with Faulkner's, she's came into the turn with a little disadvantage. Her car was now positioned at the outer side of the turn, which means she either has to brake later coming into the turn or try to dive into the inner side again.

"Let's do this, Mach 5!" Himeko shouted, sharply flicking the steering wheel as she braked entering the turn. The whole vehicle responded, turning itself sharply towards the exit of the turn even when it was barely entering the turn proper.

"_**What the-!**_" Larry exclaimed, startled as the red car beside him suddenly changed directions. He was forced to brake sooner to avoid crashing to rival car's side, and as a result lags behind as Himeko's red roadster sailed sideways through the corner.

With the flick, Himeko drifted through the rest of the corner, letting momentum carry her through the corner. She did misjudge her drift a little bit, since her outward-facing tires made a little contact with the soil just outside the asphalt. However, the whole maneuver had netted her a fair advantage over Faulkner's car, making the defeat decisive. The red roadster sped away through the gentle left-hand bend, leaving the navy blue one behind.

"_**I see it now… this is where we go our separate ways,**_" Larry said, smiling as the red vehicle sped away. "_**You are a true ace…**_"

…

"_**It's a Scandinavian flick!**_[31]" Larkson exclaimed as he stood up. "_**The crazy girl did a Scandinavian flick in the rain! Can this race be even more unbelievable?**_"

"She… just did it again," Tsuchiya commented in awe. "A Manji Drift in the middle of the rain… it takes a lot of courage to do that…"

"_**This girl is absolutely bonkers,**_" Larkson said, not bothering to wait for Reina to translate. "_**And this time, she did it against a foe of her caliber. Let's be honest, 313 was less of a challenge than 662… the other girl brought the wrong set of tires.**_"

"_**You're right, Larkson-san!**_" Reina said, agreeing with the British man. "_**But she hasn't given up just yet! The gap between her and the next car is unchanged despite her unsuitable tires! The foreigner sure isn't going to make life easy for Shinohara-san, either, because he is keeping the seven-second gap with Shinohara-san tight!**_"

"_**All five of them are worthy of getting full points today,**_" Larkson commented. "_**Even the naïve kid who lost his pole, seeing him struggle to hold back an obviously superior foe has displayed his bravery in these kinds of situation.**_"

"Larkson-san has commended all five of the leading contestants in the race, Tsuchiya-san!" Reina summarized Larkson's words. "How about you?"

"Aah, I agree with Larkson-san," Tsuchiya said. "You don't see competition this fierce every day, much less in starter-level racing like this. All of the contestants in the top five has high levels of skill, and with the right tutoring they can all make it in the pro level."

…

With Faulkner out of the way, Himeko found herself in a breather. The next car was a bit far from hers, although she can see it entering the hairpin. Looking at the rear-view mirror, Himeko can surmise that she has at least seven to eight seconds advantage over the foreigner, and it is fairly stable.

"Himeko! You crazy, crazy little girl!" a fiery voice roared from the radio as Himeko entered the third hairpin.

"Hello chief," the driver said cockily. "Do you like the show?"

"I could have bonked you on the head if I'm in there!" Kozo roared. "You're taking totally unnecessary risks! You drifted in the middle of a rain! You also ate a bit of grass coming out of the corner! Yet you succeed… great job, girl, great job!"

"Haha, I try, chief," Himeko replied.

"Jou-chan is now rolling around in disbelief," Kozo said, chuckling. "He's trying to find something in the race guidelines about dangerous driving."

"If he comes around, tell doc I don't feel weird aside of heartbeats," Himeko said. "I think my next opponent is fairly easier compared to the foreigner."

"Still, be careful with Kishida," the team owner said. "And remember, you don't have to win this. Just stay behind Tachi and you'll be fine. Starting in fourth and finishing second is already good, more so with your condition."

"We'll see, chief," Himeko said as she entered the long corner, her gap with the dark green Roadster in front of him narrowing. "Last lap incoming, huh… I guess it's either I get him or run out of road…"

…

Looking at his rear-view mirror, Yuji shivered a little as the red form of car 124 approaches. _Does that girl know no fear or something?_ He thought as he crossed the starting line. From an earlier talk with his pit crew, he learned that the girl in the red Roadster had overtaken the foreigner by using a drift. _A drift, in the middle of rain… good Lord, you've just shown me just how little I am…_

The red Roadster closed in quickly, and before long it is barely half a car from the dark green one's rear bumper. Yuji sighed, her heart already knowing that there is absolutely no way to win the position safely. In a procession they entered the first hairpin,

"Well then, let's just survive the race," the Wangan racer said to himself as he took the safer line through the corner, not wanting to spin out and retire.

…

"Another no-drama pass from contestant Kishida, I see," Tsuchiya commented. "Pretty clever of him, I think. Though the rain is letting up, by now we're certain that it won't stop until after the race ends. Four or five is still a scoring position, especially when he's not a one-time racer."

"Yes, Tsuchiya-san! At this rate, I think the foreigner will pass him too in a short time," Reina said, offering her opinion before she turned to Larkson to translate. "_**Car 123 seemed to have surrendered, Larkson-san!**_"

"_**Well, surrender may be too strong a word,**_" Larkson said. "_**But I guess he is just consolidating his position. He still has some opposition left; we know 313 isn't going to pass up a duel against someone in the same boat with her.**_"

"_**Yup, it sounds like Akemi's modus operandi alright!**_" Reina replied.

…

"Phew, that's not so hard," Himeko said to herself as she passed the dark green car going out of the first hairpin. The left-right section came up as a blur, and before long she was entering the second hairpin. The yellow car in front of her is keeping its distance, the impeccable racing line taking Tomoyuki Tachi just out of Himeko's reach. _If I could just push it…_ Himeko thought.

"Himeko-nee!" a voice called from the other side of the radio as she exited the second hairpin, breaking her short musing. "You're marvelous!"

"Akio? Gee, about time you showed up!" Himeko said, chuckling a little. "What took you so long?"

"Just making sure I don't miss any of your overtaking action on the big screen," the younger man said.

"What made you think it's the last one? That yellow car is juuust around the bend, y'know," the ill girl quipped.

"Oh, and someone wants to talk with you, Himeko-nee," the youngster said.

"Really? Who?" the racer said as she exited the third hairpin, powering into the main straight mere seconds behind Tachi.

"…Hello there, Himeko, Shirou Kotomine here," another male voice said through the radio after a few chatter noises. "Are you okay out there…?"

"…Is that really you, Father Kotomine?" Himeko spoke after a few seconds of silence.

"Yeah. I'm… not really the perfect person for all these things…" the reverend said, chuckling a little. "But Akio-kun is bringing your mother and father down here to celebrate. Stay safe until the end, Himeko."

"Aw… how cute of him," the driver replied, still tailing the yellow car as it exits the long corner into the pit straight. "Say, Kotomine-san…?"

"Yes, Himeko?" the reverend said. "Oh, and the men here would like me to inform you that you are in the final lap and you should… ah, secure your position? I hope I don't make any wrong remarks here."

"Yeah, I saw that white flag… although that goes without saying, really," Himeko said between chuckles as she entered the first hairpin. Her gaps with the rivals in her front and back didn't change appreciably. "Oh yeah, I want to ask you something."

"As long as I can answer, I suppose," Kotomine said.

"Did any of the scriptures mention about 'The Lord will change the destiny of men who worked for it' or something similar?" Himeko asked as she entered the second hairpin. This time, her effort netted her some decrease in the gap with the car in front of her.

"Hm… If it is a direct quotation, I'm afraid I've never heard of that," Kotomine replied. "Are you sure you read it in The Bible instead of somewhere else?"

"I'm not very sure myself, but now that you put it like that I suppose I might," Himeko replied, her steed barreling through the ninth turn's exit. "How do you think about the quote itself, though? Did He really do that kind of thing?"

"Who knows? It's not like we can clearly see our path beyond anyway," Kotomine said. "We can predict, we can be taught, we can be led… but our ultimate destiny is always in His hands."

"Alright, Father," Himeko said. "Gee, I just realized that I haven't called you Father in ages!"

"We rarely met, and you were never one to respect positions anyway," Kotomine replied, a small laugh adorning his words. "Ah, here comes your mother and father. I'll be handing this radio over then…?"

"Thanks anyway!" Himeko said. She was just entering the last hairpin, hot on Tachi's tail.

…

"We are on the edge of our seats here, folks!" Reina announced spiritedly as the screen showed the scene of the race leader and runner-up exiting to the main straight neck-and-neck. "_**The race is seconds from completion yet the action simply doesn't stop! Don't you agree, Larkson-san?**_"

"_**Oh I can't disagree with you there, just look at the action!**_" Larkson said. "_**Both 123 and 124 are taking it out until the last second! Just look at them running side-by-side at the main straight there! 123 is the better in technique, but that sheer mad tenacity shown by 124 brought her to the same level! This is just like Prost versus Senna!**_"

"Not every day in my career of racing and commenting have I come across a race this close," Tsuchiya added, the last remark comprehended enough for him to put in his opinion. "Especially not on this low level. Had it not for her illness, I'm sure Shinohara-san will follow Tachi-san to the pro circuits and carry this rivalry to the highest level, maybe even international."

"They're entering the long turn now, 123 slightly in the lead…" Reina said as the two cars enter the final corner of the race. "_**They're side by side, Larkson-san!**_"

"_**Ooh, this is going to be good…**_" Larkson said in anticipation, until the screen showed the backside of Himeko's car twitching suddenly. "_**Oh no! What's happening there!**_"

"_**The tail of Shinohara-san's car just wobbled! I think she lost traction for a second there, maybe?**_" Reina exclaimed. "She suddenly fishtailed[30] out of control!"

"This is unbelievable! Just at the end of the race, the win is taken from her!" Tsuchiya added. "So very unfair! Was there contact?"

"No, Tsuchiya-san, I don't think so… now she's in a real danger of losing the second place to the foreigner…" Reina replied, her hands grabbing a sheet of paper tightly. "Oh my god, I can't bear to watch!"

"_**124 puts it under control just in time!**_" Larkson hollered as the first car crossed the finish line uncontested. "_**But will it be enough for Faulkner to pass him… no! 124 keeps her position!**_"

"The race is finished! Car number 123, Tomoyuki Tachi, is the winner of the race, followed by number 124 Himeko Shinohara as runner-up and number 662 Larry Faulkner in third place! _**What a race, gentlemen!**_" Reina announced with gusto as the race ends. "_**What a race!**_"

…

"Himeko, what happened down there? You suddenly fishtailed in the last corner!" Joushima urgently asked, having snatched the microphone unit from Toushirou as the cars lapsed into a lap as before they return to the pits. "Answer me!"

"I'm okay, Doc… nnh… not that bad, at least," Himeko replied. "My left foot suddenly cramped, I guess? Damn, that really stings…"

"Let's run a check when you're back in here," Joushima replied in a stern tone. "I don't like that pause in your first sentence."

"Aww, doc, I want to be at the podium!" Himeko shot back. "Give me a crutch if you have to, but I want to be there!"

"Aah… no reasoning there, huh," The doctor chuckled. "Alright, you're mine after the medal ceremony. Not a second later, got that?"

"Loud and clear, doc. Loud and clear…" Himeko said, passing a few cars on her way to the garage. Few drivers saluted her, Faulkner and Tomoyuki in particular.

As she parked, Himeko looked up to the cracking clouds above, smiling subtly. The bitter sweetness of meeting that little girl, the toils she endured working on the car, the last promise she made years ago... all comes together in this moment. The victory wasn't perfect, but hey. She did her best.

"See, kid… told you I'll win a race in your stead…"

* * *

**Glossary:**

[30]: 'Proofing' a tire is basically shaving its grooves so that the tire will have more contact area with the road. This translates into better grip overall, and it's the best you can get without resorting to specially-made racing slicks. However, treating tires this way reduces its ability to be driven safely in wet conditions, because tire grooves prevents water to accumulate under the tire while the car is running. This accumulation of a thin film of water is called aquaplaning, and it is dangerous because it severely reduces tire grip and can cause the car to fishtail (sway uncontrollably from side to side while going straight) and/or go off the road.

[31]: A Scandinavian Flick (or Manji Drift in Japanese drifting terms) is a kind of drift-turning where the driver aligns the nose of the car to the exit of the turn shortly after it enters the turn; this will cause the whole car to drift sideways with the nose pointing towards the exit the turn, potentially reducing braking and carrying the car faster through the turn with momentum gained.

* * *

**A/N:**

I... don't really have anything to say. It's like that feeling when you look back in that point in time, when you're young and foolish, thinking that 'hey, this idea seems neat!' and then just go out with it... and before you know it things happen, words pile up, and stuff unfolds. I know that 50k words is pretty measly for a novel, even more measly if i think of how long this project have been running. Then again, it's still a milestone.

In the middle of writing this, i took up a personal promise not to start any more multi-chaptered project until the project is done. I kept the promise, perhaps hindering my own muse in the process. But boy am i glad to have made that promise all those years back...

Stay tuned, for I have one last chapter to tell.


	11. When September Ends

DISCLAIMER:

All trademarked items in this fanfiction is owned by their respected copyright holders (Narcissu by Tomo Kataoka, Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki, Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno). The ones which are owned by me are merely the plot and the author's thoughts. This fanfiction is made solely for entertainment purposes and not intended for any material gain.

Thoughts are in _italic_. Since a few characters are speaking in English and this fic is set in the same language (while in actuality almost all of the characters spoke in Japanese), I decided to render the spoken English in _**bold-italic**_.

* * *

_**Narcissu II: Das Rote Gespenst**_

_Epilogue: … When September Ends_

* * *

"Ready to go, Himeko-nee?" the youngster at the passenger seat said as he closed the blue vehicle's door and don the three-point seatbelt.

"Ready when you are, Akio," the brown-haired woman called Himeko-nee said as the man beside her buckled up for the ride.

Time has passed since that fateful race in the middle of summer. There was a temporary bloom of activity for Himeko, but that was to be expected. To date, there hasn't been a cancer patient with that much success in a racing event.

"Now, we wanted to keep this safe and easy," Akio said, looking to Himeko's face. "Devil Z can go upwards of three hundred kilometers per hour in full throttle, and with that speed we'd just fly off the track… the length of this circuit's straights is definitely not enough so don't even try. Also, this is a time trial event so you will be up against yourself."

"Alright, alright," Himeko said, chuckling a little. "Well then, let's start her up."

With rumble, Devil Z started up. The harsher shudder of the engine made Himeko flinch a bit, but her smile rises swiftly as the rev hikes. A few times she tried revving the engine, before she turned to Akio.

"How about it?" the owner of the car said, smiling. "That's the hum of a Nissan L28 engine, bored to 3.1 liters, and fitted with twin turbo and triple carburetor."

"I have to say that it is pretty impressive," the lady driver said, engaging first gear and steering the car out of the paddock garage. "I bet it has a very high top speed and a good acceleration."

"Yeah. It can go all the way up to 300 kilometers per hour given a good long road," Akio said as the car makes it way through the pit lane. "However, the turbo setup is still a bit laggy. You won't notice it right away, but it's there. I have to tune it a bit more after I get back from here."

"You really are one of a kind," Himeko said. "How about trying out real, sanctioned racing, then? I've already seen you drive… you'll be fine. I heard Doc and Kaichou are really considering a proper team now, plus the people at Todo Juku had already offered you a try-out… take one or the other, that's an advice from a real racing driver here."

"And you've raced for a grand total of one race, how reassuring…" Akio grunted.

"Shush you, I'm the one with an official racing license here," Himeko shot back in a good-natured manner. "Ah, that's the green flag. It's time to do the warm-up lap, then?"

"Whenever you're ready, Himeko-nee," Akio replied.

"Let's go have fun," Himeko said, grinning.

With the word of the princess, the curtain rises for the last time.

* * *

…

* * *

"You'd think that they'll stop hounding you after that rotary club thing," Himeko said, sighing as Akio eased Devil Z into the highway linking Shimotsuma and Mito. The day is nearing its end, with the autumn sky painted red and gold by the sun.

"You're now some sort of celebrity I think," Akio said, keeping the car level at a hundred kilometers per hour. "You got all those interviews, even got to Top Gear mag. Ko-san even wanted your autograph."

"The lot it did me good," Himeko mused, chuckling a little.

"Mazda footed the bill for your hospice care, alongside your prize money," Akio said as he changed lanes to a faster one. The next few minutes is filled with silence as they overtook a few slower cars. Both people let their minds wander, Akio less so due to him driving.

"Hey Akio, you did say that one time that Devil Z is prone to unpredictable behavior when driven…" Himeko said, breaking the silence. "I don't think we got any of that when we driven it this afternoon. Not to jinx it, but it's just… weird."

"Beats me too," Akio said. "I think it's because you still drive it like you drive Mach 5… the car won't show its true colors unless driven like it was meant to, I guess."

"I guess. We barely hit two hundred at the track, but I did feel that frisky handling beginning to be noticeable," Himeko said. "Maybe that instability only becomes a problem in higher speeds?"

"That's what I'm thinking," Akio replied simply.

"Or maybe… the devil is just respecting me?" Himeko ventured a guess. "The date won't be long, now."

"Himeko-nee…" Akio said softly. It's easy to overlook Himeko's numbered days in front of her exuberance and love of life. Now that the girl had been taken off Joushima's drug and exercise regimen, her body had gradually receded back to its frail, low-energy state. Even time-trial racing has been a bimonthly affair at best, as not to burden her body.

"On another note… you finally used that moniker!" Himeko happily said.

"W-what about it?" Akio replied. "It's easier to pronounce, not using it due to attachment or anything!"

"Hahaha, maybe…" Himeko said, her short, mirthful laughter dying down. "So between the two, who did you eventually pick?"

"…None," Akio replied to the veiled question.

"Oh come on! I gave you two beautiful girls and you go wishy-washy on both of them?" Himeko said in mock anger. "What is wrong with you Akio, are you autosexual or something?"

"What does autosexual even mean, sheesh," Akio groaned. "Besides, I don't think I can sustain a relationship just yet. My studies are just hectic these days, plus I need to at least get enough money for board and stuff."

"Are you thinking of going to college? Good for you," Himeko said. "Funny, I never pegged you as the studious type."

"After seeing you race, I'm beginning to think about the future…" Akio said. "Tachi-san, Kishida, you… you people really showed me how exciting pro racing can be. The rush in Wangan is unparalleled, but you can die at any moment… at the tracks, people are trying the hardest to live, to race another day. It's a little different, but I want to see that world by myself."

"Good for you, good for you…" Himeko said before yawning. "Aah… how much longer until we arrive?"

"Half an hour, give or take…" Akio said, slowing down due to a road construction site. "More with all these road repair stuff, I guess."

"Well then, we'll get there when we get there," Himeko replied, settling into a more comfortable position and shutting her eyes. Knowing that the day must have been taxing, Akio let the late-twenties woman sleep. The rest of the drive is rather uneventful and slow, but neither party minded. It would take another hour before Akio finally stopped the car in the outpatient reception area of the hospital.

"Himeko-nee, wake up, we're at the hospital…" Akio said, rocking Himeko's body gently. There was no response.

"Himeko-nee…?" Akio repeated his words. It was a Sunday evening, and the area was a quiet. Save for some nurses and visiting people, it was practically deserted despite the time of night.

"Oh, isn't it Asakura-san and Himeko-san?" A voice sounded from outside the driver-side window. Akio turned his head, and saw a nurse he knew leaning to the window.

"Oh, Nami-san wasn't it?" Akio said as he lowered the window. "Just finishing your shift?"

"Naah, I'm on a break. Some nurses up at seventh pitched in for a tub of Haagen-Dazs, so I went out to buy it from a konbini nearby…" Nami replied. "Rough day for Himeko-san, I guess?"

"We were in a Sunday time trial event in Tsukuba," Akio replied. "And I think she's quite tired…"

"Ah, alright. Let me help you wake her up," the nurse said, handing Akio the plastic bag with the ice cream. "I might need your help carrying Himeko-san upstairs though."

"Alright," Akio said as the nurse opened the passenger door, putting the ice cream tub on the dashboard before getting out of the car himself.

"Himeko-san…" Nami said gently, rocking Himeko a little. "Huh? …wait a minute…"

"Um… did something happen?" Akio asked, just as Nami started to do little things that the racer doesn't quite understand.

"…Requiescat in pace…" Nami finally breathed out after a few tense moments. "Asakura-san… Himeko-san has passed away."

* * *

…

* * *

Akio sighed for the umpteenth time. Devil Z has been behaving oddly as of late, not that it has ever behaved predictably in the past. The turbo lag he had noticed has only increased perceptibly for some reason, not to mention the body has been acting up.

_Now that I think of it, it all started since Himeko-nee died_, Akio thought to himself. _Could it be… that Himeko-nee was the true soulmate to the Devil Z? We did get first place that last time…_

"Oi, poor mechanic," a voice called from outside the garage, breaking Akio's daydream. "Damn, even out here you're still tinkering with cars. Poor mechanic indeed…"

"…is that Yuka-san?" Akio piped up, looking up from the Devil Z's machine he's been maintaining.

"In the flesh," Yuka replied, smirking. "Damn if this address isn't hard to find…"

"What are you doing here?" Akio asked. "All the way out from Mito, too…"

"Just looking for some fresh air," Yuka answered.

"Yeah right… I think the air here is much worse compared than Mito… or even Shimotsuma for that matter," the younger man said, cleaning a little grime on his hands with a piece of cloth. "So, what can I help you with? I doubt I can tune your Vivio to do three hundred on Wangan, though."

"No thank you. I want a car, not a speedy coffin," Yuka grumbled, before pointing behind her with her thumb. "Besides, I'm just a delivery girl."

"…Mach 5?" Akio said, his eyes following the direction of Yuka's thumb only to find the familiar red Eunos Roadster parked a little distance from his garage. It still had the livery and car number stickers from the RoadSpec race it participated in.

"Or Red, or Red Phantom as that two old geezers seem to know it as," the petite said, folding her arms. "The Shinoharas wants to get rid of the deathtrap."

"It's not a deathtrap per se…" Akio said, objecting the statement. "It only goes to one-fifty and much safer than Devil Z!"

"That is deathtrap enough for us normal humans," Yuka grumbled. "But that aside, but you know the deal with these kinds of sport cars, even those barely modified like this."

"They don't sell well, and even if they sell it's always after months and months of waiting… not so liquid, Dad used to say," Akio finished the implied statement. "Generally it's more profitable to sell it to a scrapyard."

"Yeah. I heard Toushirou-jiji cut a deal with your father, though not too much," the older woman said. "But the bottom line is, this car is yours. All the paperwork and taxes are dealt with, and they're in a brown envelope in the glove box."

"Thank you for the service, where do I sign?" Akio quipped.

"Heh, no need for that," Yuka said, handing the Roadster's key to the young man. "Let me just grab my bag from Red's boot and I'll go flag a cab from here to the main station. My train to Ibaraki departs at six thirty."

"Let me drive you there at least," the young man said. "You won't get there cheaply on time in a cab, those sneaky bastards."

"In that blue coffin? Hell no," Yuka replied. "I don't want to go home in a pine box, thank you."

"We'll take Red there," Akio said, smiling sheepishly at the statement. "Besides, I don't feel like riding Devil Z tonight."

"Suits you, cabby," Yuka said in a dismissive tone. "Besides, it's not like I filled her up for you or anything."

* * *

…

* * *

Akio sighed as he settled in the red Roadster's cabin. _Dad really bought it from Toushirou-jisan_, the teen thought as he read through the papers of ownership. _So I guess I'll drive it to his office, first thing after school…_

Then, a smaller white envelope caught Akio's eye. It was addressed to him, as the writing on the envelope indicates. He expects it to be some sort of secret farewell letter of some kind. He was sorely mistaken.

After reading the letter, Akio folded the letter and put it back into the envelope. It filled him with a sense of purpose. It gave him the courage to move on.

Smiling, he started the red car to drive off. Shimada-sensei might have been waiting for him at the garage, and he might catch Reina at the usual rest area. They are definitely going to know of his retirement first-hand. Shima would be next.

Plus, he's definitely having that Todo Juku tryout.

* * *

**END**

* * *

**A/N:**

Finally.

I sort of feel... achieved something. Or nothing. Well, it changed nothing, crummy ending aside. _Das Rote Gespenst_ is officially finished.

Also, Shirou Kotomine is conceived way before he appeared in Nasucanon proper. Ha.


End file.
